Investigation of Multi-Layer Secondary Concept of an Electromagnetic Launcher

Electromagnetic launchers are somewhat preferred to combustion and mechanical ones due to their superior advantages. Acceleration improvement in a limited motor length is the major problem of these machines. Optimal shape of secondary sheet has the great importance on launching procedure, which is investigated in this paper. The common methods of acceleration improvement have been explored on a 4 kW, 600 mm case-studied launcher. Multi-layer secondary is then proposed and investigated on case-studied machine. The efficacy of proposed topology is verified by finite elements method (FEM) as well as experimental tests.