The current distributions on the rails and armature are not only affected by the skin effect, but also influenced by the proximity effect which is rarely mentioned.
When someone presses the trigger, current flows up one rail, through the armature and down the second rail.
The German system, known as Transrapid, achieves levitation by magnetic attraction; deep skirtings on its vehicles, wrapping around the outer rims of the guideway, contain levitation and guidance electromagnets which, when energized, are attracted to ferromagnetic armature rails at the guideway's extremities and lift the vehicle.
Inside the barrel of a railgun are a pair of parallel metal rails and a sliding conductive armature.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of armature velocity as well as the rails physical and geometrical properties on the dynamic response of the rails in an electromagnetic launcher.
Changes of the magnetic force distribution between the two rails along with the running position of the armature and other parameters are investigated.
Then, the equations for changes of the bending stress and shear stress in the rail along with time and the running position of the armature are given.
When electrical energy accumulated in a bank of capacitors is rapidly pulsed into the rail, it creates an instantaneous magnetic field which flings the armature out with explosive force (see picture).
This generates a set of magnetic fields that accelerate the armature, and thus the projectile, forward along the rails and propel it out of the muzzle of the gun.That, at least, is the theory.
The railgun gets its name from two highly conductive rails, which form a complete electric circuit once the metal projectile and a sliding armature are put in place.
The faster the muzzle velocity, the stronger the rails must be, both to avoid buckling and to resist erosion from the friction created by the accelerating armature.
