A Novel Iterative Technique for Interoperability of Real-Time Simulation and Finite Element Simulation Using Railgun Circuit

High-power railgun circuit design and construction is costly and time-consuming. Verifying the behavior and performance of the circuit using a circuit simulator before hardware implementation is faster and more cost-effective. In this brief, a rail type electromagnetic launcher is modeled as a controlled voltage source to the pulse forming circuit and a real-time simulation is performed on that circuit. To validate the developed real-time model of the railgun circuit, the current pulse generated is given as an input to the finite element model developed in LS-Dyna. Obtained results of finite element (FE) simulation and real-time (RT) simulator are compared from a mechanical viewpoint. An iterative procedure is utilized to exactly model the railgun in real-time simulation along with finite element simulation. In the iterative process, the result of the inductance gradient obtained in the finite element simulation is plugged back into the real-time simulator. The current obtained in the real-time simulator is given as an input to finite element simulation. Among the models, the linear fit model of inductance gradient has performed better. A tolerance condition of least approximate error in the muzzle velocity is selected for termination of iterations.