Salvo Performance Analysis of Double-Projectile Railgun

In this paper, we propose a novel double-projectile railgun, which can launch two projectiles synchronously. This salvo performance can improve the hit rate and the destructive power on the target. The railgun has two barrels stacked in series and is powered by a pulse power. In order to verify its salvo performance, we conducted a 3-D eddy current electromagnetic field simulation with the finite-element numerical method. The simulation results showed that the self-inductance gradient of each pair of rails is not always constant; the value depends on the armatures' position, particularly when the armatures are closer to the breech. Moreover, we found that, when the two armatures are at different positions, the values of the mutual-inductance gradient of the two pairs of rails are different . Subsequent circuit simulation of the launching process showed that the propulsive force acting on the armature in the front is less than that on the armature behind. We discovered that the configuration of the railgun will facilitate the synchronization during the launching process, even if the two armatures have different masses, move under different frictions, or start at different positions. We further tested a corresponding scale model of the railgun. The experiment led to the conclusion that the double-projectile railgun has good salvo performance.