Research on Electromagnetic Dynamics Algorithm of Reluctance Launcher during Acceleration Process

Abstract

The structure of the reluctance electromagnetic launcher (REML) is equivalent to an inductor with a movable iron core. The dynamic current in the launching process is easy to be measured by instruments, but the data such as the position, velocity of the projectile and the equivalent inductance are not only difficult to solve by analytical methods, but also difficult to measure by instruments, which seriously hinders the development of the control technology. To solve this problem, referring to the method of introducing the inductance matrix into the motor algorithm model to realize semi‐analytic calculation, a special algorithm model is proposed to calculate the launch process data of REML based on the current data. According to the working characteristics of the reluctance coil transmitter, it is pointed out that its inductance matrix should be specifically expressed as a three‐dimensional data table rather than a traditional two‐dimensional table. The current can be obtained by closed‐loop calculation according to the proposed algorithm block diagram when the circuit parameters are known, or measured by instruments when the circuit parameters are unknown, and then the launch process data is obtained indirectly through calculation. In this study, an experimental platform was built, and the algorithm model was established using MATLAB/Simulink. The comparison of the dynamic launch process data of the finite element method (FEM) showed that the method was feasible. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.