Sliding electrical contact performance of electromagnetic launcher system in rapid fire mode

The high speed sliding contact is between the armature and the rails in the electromagnetic launcher experiments. The contact performance can be influenced by the frictional heating and current joule heating, and the influence is more evident in the rapid fire mode due to the rail temperature rise. This paper discusses the contact performance with the sliding contact resistance. In the experiments, two 5-g armatures are launched with the speed of 1 000 m/s, and frequency of 166 Hz. The effect on the contact resistance of the temperature rise is calculated approximately. The results show that the contact resistance of the second armature is higher than that of the first armature with the temperature rise. In addition, thermal management should be adopted in the multi-armature launching in rapid fire mode.