A Novel Structure of Augmented Railgun Using Multilayer Magnets and Sabots

A novel augmented railgun using multilayer magnets and sabots is proposed in this paper, in which the rails have dc constant currents. Using dc constant currents for the rails generates the constant acceleration for the projectile. The augmentation with multilayer permanent magnets increases the length of passing current, which improves the railgun efficiency. Furthermore, the proposed railgun does not require the high power supplies because each sabot carries only low current. In addition, the iron structure has been located at the top and bottom of the whole structure to produce a homogeneous magnetic field. Accurate analytical expressions have been derived for the Lorentz force and the velocity of the proposed structure in this paper. The railgun structure has been simulated in Maxwell software for various rail currents, and the analytical results have good agreement with simulation results. The amplitude of the Lorentz force in the z-direction has been calculated for various sabot materials to investigate the effect of the sabot materials on the performance of the railgun. Our results indicate that the velocity of the projectile can achieve to 300 m/s for the projectile mass of 2 kg in our proposed railgun. This makes the railgun a good candidate for the heavy projectiles in the launcher technology.