System-level simulation approach and platform for electromagnetic railgun system

With the development of power, armature and rail, many types of electromagnetic launcher systems were built for scientific research or military application over the last 30 years. System-level simulation provides a useful tool to better understand electromagnetic launcher operation and evaluate the comprehensive performance of railgun for different purpose. In this paper we present a novel simulation approach to provide faster and scalable simulation for various railgun. To reflect more vivid details of the operation and make good use of the simulation results, the function and structure of the platform are studied. The key technologies including object-oriented modeling, distributed interactive simulation, virtual reality and simulation process management are presented, which can efficiently ensure model reuse, visualization of railgun operation and control of the simulation process. Then, the simulation platform is developed as a federation within High Level Architecture framework. The advantages of the proposed approach and platform have been demonstrated through the comparison between two railgun system with different propulsion component including solid metal armature and plasma armature. Simulation results show that the plasma armature railgun accelerates the projectile to velocity in excess of the other one, but causes more serious damage on rail. Meanwhile, the visualization of the launch process and simulation results is accomplished in the form of curve and scene by the platform. Furthermore, the simulation methodology makes it convenient to interoperate existing simulation system and lays foundation for the implementation of larger scale simulation for scientific research or other applications.