A Novel Magnetic Coupled Railgun System Based on Inductive Pulsed Power Supply—Preliminary Theoretical Analysis and Experiment Study

Among the various types of power supplies for electromagnetic launch, the inductive pulsed power supply (IPPS) has great research value and application prospects due to its high energy density. However, in the railgun system powered by IPPS, the energy flow has a redundant conversion process of magnetic–electric–magnetic, which may result in efficiency reduction. In this article, a novel configuration of a magnetic coupled railgun system is proposed, which allows the inductors of IPPS to provide an enhanced magnetic field for the railgun. It can increase the launching force, thereby improving the muzzle velocity and energy efficiency. The proposed system configuration is theoretically analyzed from the perspective of launch principle and circuit equivalence. It was also experimentally verified to be able to significantly improve the launch speed, and has little effect on the circuit operation and the mechanical structure of the launcher. In a set of verification experiments, the energy required by the magnetic coupled railgun system is only 47% of that of the conventional system, under the condition that the muzzle velocity is almost the same.