IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 45, NO.

8, AUGUST 2017 2381

Study of Single-Stage Double-Armature Multipole

Field Electromagnetic Launcher
Zhongming Yan, Xiaofei Long, Falong Lu, Yu Wang, and Hanjun Liu

Abstract— Multipole field electromagnetic launcher (MFEL) is

a new type of coilgun that can produce larger radial magnetic
field compared to the axial magnetic field, the axial acceleration
force of coilgun mainly come from radial magnetic field. Because
of the similarity of the magnetic fields between inner and outer
regions of MFEL, this paper proposed a double-armature MFEL.
One armature coaxial with the drive coil placed inside of MFEL;
the other armature coaxial with the drive coil placed outside
of MFEL. A single-stage double-armature MFEL was studied
by simulation and experimental methods. The simulation results
indicated that the muzzle velocity of the double-armature launch
is similar to that of the single-armature launch, and the efficiency
of double-armature MFEL is obviously larger than that of single
armature. To verify the conceptual feasibility, a small-size single-
stage double-armature capacitor-driven MFEL was built and
tested. The inner small armature weighs 63.13 g, the outer big
armature weighs 88.38 g. The experimental results on single-
armature launch show good consistency with the simulation
results, but there is a little gap between the experimental results
on double-armature launch and the simulation results. The causes
of the existing differences are considered to be mainly from
the consistency difference between the six driving coils and the
mutual influence between the inner and outer armatures.
Index Terms— Double armature, electromagnetic launcher,
inner armature, multipole field, outer armature. Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of single-stage MFEL with different config-
uration. (a) Sextupole driving coils. (b) Traditional single-armature MFEL.
(c) Double-armature MFEL.
I. I NTRODUCTION

M ULTIPOLE field electromagnetic launcher (MFEL) is a

new type of induction launcher [1], it can be considered
as a superposition of several reconnection launchers [2]. Due
to its special configuration, the armature could be accelerated
with spinning motion [3]. This feature makes MFEL ideal
for electromagnetic launching application which requires high
projectile stability [3]–[5]. The current research of MFEL
mainly focused on theoretical analysis and experimental
verification. For example, Zhu et al. [1], [3] proposed the
concepts of normal and twisty MFEL; Luo et al. [6] analyzed
different connection patterns of MFEL and experimentally
tested a single-stage launcher. Musolino et al. [7] presented
an analytical model for the investigation of the gyroscopic
Manuscript received January 7, 2017; revised June 1, 2017; accepted
June 10, 2017. Date of publication June 21, 2017; date of current version
August 9, 2017. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities under Grant 2682015CX022. (Corresponding
author: Zhongming Yan.)
Z. Yan and Y. Wang are with the School of Electrical Engineering,
Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China, and also with the
Key Laboratory of Magnetic Suspension Technology and Maglev Vehicle,
Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031,
China (e-mail: yzm@home.swjtu.edu.cn; wangyu@home.swjtu.edu.cn).
X. Long, F. Lu, and H. Liu are with the School of Electrical Engi-
neering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China (e-mail:
yzm@home.swjtu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2017.2716421
0093-3813 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
stabilization in a traveling-wave MFEL. The above work
demonstrated advantages of MFEL. However, MFEL has a
serious problem over its energy conversion efficiency espe-
cially at low-speed situation.
Single-stage sextupole driving coils are shown in Fig. 1(a).
The traditional MFEL has only one armature inside of MFEL,
as shown in Fig. 1(b). When the driving coils are charged,
magnetic field exists in the inner and outer regions of the
driving coils. The sextupole magnetic field has the similar
configuration in the above two regions. In order to improve
the efficiency of MFEL, this paper proposed a single-stage
double-armature configuration. Two armatures are, respec-
tively, placed inside and outside of driving coils, as shown
in Fig. 1(c). The innovation of this configuration lies in the
simultaneous utilization of the inner and outer electromagnetic
energy of MFEL. Therefore, the energy conversion efficiency
of the launcher is increased as well. It has the application
prospect of launching multiple projectiles.
The characteristics of double-armature MFEL were dis-
cussed by using finite-element simulation software. A single-
stage double-armature MFEL was built and tested.
II. S INGLE -S TAGE D OUBLE -A RMATURE MFEL D ESIGN
A. Launcher Design
The MFEL is composed of sextupole driving coils, inner
armature, outer armature, platen, and base board, as shown
2382 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 45, NO. 8, AUGUST 2017

TABLE I
3-D M ODEL D IMENSIONS

As the switch K is closed, the pulse capacitor C is charged

by HVDC. After the voltage of the capacitor C was charged
to set value, the switch K is opened and switch THY which
is controlled by CON is closed. Then, the pulse capacitor
discharges to the driving coils. The loop circuit equation of
the driving coils is
di d di ai d Mdai
Fig. 2. Structure of sextupole field electromagnetic launcher. (a) 3-D model. Rd i d + L d + Mdai + i ai
(b) Launcher. (c) Launcher and double armature. dt dt dt 
di ao d Mdao 1 t1
+ Mdao + i ao − i d dt = Uc0 (1)
dt dt C 0
where i d and L d are the current and the inductance of
six series driving coils in one stage, Mdai is the mutual
inductance between six series driving coils and inner armature,
i ai is the current of the inner armature,Mdao is the mutual
inductance between six series driving coils and outer armature,
i ao is the current of the outer armature, t1 is the time which
the pulse capacitor takes to discharge, and Uc0 is the initial
charged voltage of the pulse capacitor.
After the voltage of the capacitor declines to zero, the cur-
rent of the driving coils flowthrough the diode D. The loop
Fig. 3. Driving circuit schematic. circuit equation of the driving coils becomes
di d di ai d Mdai
Rd i d + L d + Mdai + i ai
in Fig. 2. The platen is used to fix the driving coils on the dt dt dt
base board. di ao d Mdao
+ Mdao + i ao = 0. (2)
The 3-D model dimensions are listed in Table I. As shown dt dt
in Fig. 1, the cross sections of each sextupole driving coil is In the entire process of launch, the loop circuit equations
approximately square, the cross section of the armature is a of the inner and outer armatures are
regular hexagon. di ai di d d Mdai
Rai i ai + L ai + Mdai + id
dt dt dt
B. Circuit Analysis di ao d Mio
+ Mio + i ao = 0 (3)
The circuit of the single-stage sextupole driving coils is dt dt
di ao di d d Mdao
shown in Fig. 3. It is a capacitor-driven pulsed power circuit. Rao i ao + L ao + Mdao + id
HVDC is a high-voltage power supply, which is used for dt dt dt
di ai d Mio
charging capacitor C; K and THY are two switches; D is + Mio + i ai = 0. (4)
a free-wheeling diode, which can prevent the capacitor from dt dt
inversely charge; L1 to L6 are the self-inductance of the According to the magnetic flux coupling and mutual induc-
driving coils in one stage; Rd is the total resistance of six series tance law, we could obtained
driving coils in one stage; L ai and Rai are the self-inductance i ai L ai = i d Mdai + i ao Mio (5)
and resistance of the inner armature; L ao and Rao are the
i ao L ao = i d Mdao + i ai Mio (6)
self-inductance and resistance of the outer armature. The
capacitance of C is 400 μF, the resistance of R is 0.143 , where Mio is the mutual inductance between the inner
and the inductance of six series driving coils is 100.8 μH. and outer armatures. The current of the inner and outer
YAN et al.: SINGLE-STAGE DOUBLE-ARMATURE MFEL 2383

armatures are
Mdai L ao + Mio Mdao
i ai = i d (7)
L ai L ao − Mio
2

Mdao L ai + Mio Mdai

i ao = id . (8)
L ao L ai − Mio
2

The mechanical-electric coupling equations between the

driving coils and armatures are
d Wmi d Mdai d Mio
Fai = = i d i ai + i ao i ai (9)
d x ai d x ai d x ai
Fig. 4. Initial positon of the double armature.
d Wmo d Mdao d Mio
Fao = = i d i ao + i ai i ao (10)
d x ao d x ao d x ao
where Fai and Fao are the acceleration forces acted on the of the two armatures, respectively, and m ai and m ao are the
inner and outer armatures, respectively, Wmi is the mutual- mass of the two armatures, respectively.
inductance magnetic energy between the inner armature and
III. S IMULATION R ESULTS
six series driving coils and outer armature, Wmo is the mutual-
inductance magnetic energy between the outer armature and Infolytica Magnet is ideal for simulating multi-DOF motion.
six series driving coils and inner armature, x ai is the inner In this section, its 3-D transient calculation module is used to
armature motion displacement, and x ao is the outer armature analyze the launching characteristics of a single-stage double-
motion displacement. armature MFEL.
As shown in (7) and (8), compared to the single-armature The initial position has great effect on the performance of
launch [1], the acceleration force of the double-armature launcher [6], [8]. At the optimal initial position, the driving
launch is affected by additional factors such as the current of current and the inductance gradient should reach the peak
two armatures and the grads of the mutual inductance between value at the same time. This will maximize the thrust force
the inner and outer armatures. If the variation of the induced and obtain the largest muzzle velocity. The capacitance of
current of the double armature is slight and the speed of the the capacitor determines the time that the driving current
double armature is approximately equal, it can be concluded reaches the peak value. The initial charged voltage of the
that the additional factors are negligible. capacitor does not affect this time, so it also basically does
The motion equations of double armatures could be not affect the optimal initial position of the armature. Through
expressed by the simulation of the different initial position of the armature,
the optimal initial position of the armature is obtained. In this
F
a= (11) paper, as shown in Fig. 4, the optimal initial position is set to
m 12 mm which is the distance between the end of the armature
 T
vm = v0 + adt (12) and the upper surface of the base board. In order to observe
0 the inner armature, the outer armature in Fig. 4 is perspective.
 T The driving coil connection pattern also has a great impact
x = x0 + v m dt (13) on launching performance [6]. The same connection pattern
0
is used to connect sextupole driving coils in the simulation.
where a is the acceleration of the armature, F is the acceler- In this connection pattern, the current direction in adjacent
ation force of the armature, m is the armature mass, v m is the coils is the same. The simulation results on single- and
speed of the armature, v 0 is the initial velocity of the armature, double-armature launch with different initial charged voltage
x is the armature motion displacement, and x 0 is the initial of capacitor are shown in Tables II and III.
position of the armature. It can be seen that the muzzle velocity of the double-
Combining and solving the circuit equation, mechanical- armature launch is similar to that of the single-armature
electric coupling equation and motion equations by the launch. The total energy conversion efficiency (η) of the
Runge–Kuta method, the motion parameters of the armature double-armature launch is obviously larger than the η of
are obtained. the single-armature launch. As the initial charged voltage
The system energy conversion efficiency is defined as the of capacitor is 1 kV, the simulation results of the accelera-
ratio of the armatures kinetic energy to the energy initially tion force on single- and double-armature launch are shown
stored in the pulse capacitor. With the speed of the armatures in Figs. 5 and 6. It can be seen that the maximum force of
and the initial voltage of the capacitor, the efficiency is the inner and outer armatures with single-armature launch is,
expressed by respectively, 680 N and 800 N; the maximum force of the
 2  1  2 
2 m ai v im − v i0 + 2 m ao v om − v o0
1 2 2 inner and outer armatures with double-armature launch is,
E k
η= = 1 2
(14) respectively, 650 N and 770 N. The acceleration force curves
E C0 2 CU0 of the two kinds of launch modes are approximately the same.
where v i0 and v o0 are the initial velocity of the inner and outer In Fig. 6, the maximum acceleration force and deceleration
armatures, respectively, v im and v om are the muzzle velocity force appear at the time of 0.4 and 0.76 ms, respectively.
2384
TABLE II
S IMULATION R ESULTS ON S INGLE A RMATURE L AUNCH
TABLE III
S IMULATION R ESULTS ON D OUBLE -A RMATURE L AUNCH
Fig. 5. Simulation acceleration force of the single armature launch versus
time.
Fig. 6. Simulation acceleration force of the double-armature launch versus
time.
The distribution of the induced current density of the inner
armature at two different times is shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
In order to observe the eddy current distribution of the inner
armature, two front driving coils and the outer armature are
hidden in Figs. 7 and 8. The current of the driving coils is
counterclockwise.
It can be seen that the eddy current of the inner armature
at the time of 0.4 ms in Fig. 7 is clockwise. It means that the
directions of the current of the inner armature and the driving
coils are opposite. So the repulsion force between the inner
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 45, NO. 8, AUGUST 2017
Fig. 7. Simulation result of the induced current density distribution of the
double-armature launch at the time of 0.4 ms.
Fig. 8. Simulation result of the induced current density distribution of the
double-armature launch at the time of 0.76 ms.
TABLE IV
S IMULATION R ESULTS ON I NNER A RMATURE L AUNCH
W HEN THE O UTER A RMATURE I S S TATIONARY
armature and the driving coils pushes the inner armature to
move forward.
Because of the armature capture effect, it can be seen that
the eddy current of the inner armature at the time of 0.76 ms
in Fig. 8 is counterclockwise. It means that the directions of
the current of the inner armature and the driving coils are
approximately equal. So the attraction force acts on the inner
armature. It causes the armature to be slowed down.
For better analysis of the difference between single- and
double-armature launch, a kind of launch mode is investigated
which one armature is stationary clinging to the MFEL,
the other is to be launched at the optimal launch position.
The simulation results with different initial charged voltage of
capacitor are shown in Tables IV and V.
YAN et al.: SINGLE-STAGE DOUBLE-ARMATURE MFEL
TABLE V
S IMULATION R ESULTS ON O UTER A RMATURE L AUNCH
W HEN THE I NNER A RMATURE I S S TATIONARY
Fig. 9. Overall view of the single-stage double-armature launcher set.
The comparison between Tables II and IV shows that the
muzzle velocity of the inner armature launch, when the outer
armature is stationary clinging to the MFEL, is slightly higher
than that of the single-inner-armature launch. The comparison
between Tables II and V shows that the muzzle velocity of the
outer armature launch, when the inner armature is stationary
clinging to the MFEL, is slightly lower than that of the single-
inner armature launch. It can be seen that in these two cases,
the performance gap of the system is relatively small. The
following experimental research will focus on the single- and
double-armature launch.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULT
The sextupole driving coils are composed of six identical
driving coils connected in series. The coil parameters are
shown in Table I. It was wound with 1.5-mm-diameter copper
wires onto a phenolic glass fiber body and solidified with
epoxy resin E44. The inside cross-sectional surface of the
driving coils was covered with a 0.4-mm-thick Teflon sheet
for protection and friction reduction. As shown in Fig. 2(b),
the driving coils are installed at the center of each side of the
regular hexahedron by M8 stainless steel bolts; the base board
is a 10-mm-thick square epoxy resin board. Two terminals of
each driving coil were fixed at the bottom of the base board for
connection. The armature is an aluminum regular hexagonal
sleeve, the double-armature parameters are shown in Table I.
The overall view of this single-stage double-armature
launcher set is shown in Fig. 9. The speed of the double
armature is measured by two photoelectric sensors. As the
current direction of the adjacent driving coils is the same,
the experimental results on single- and double-armature launch
with different initial charged voltage of capacitor are shown
in Tables VI and VII.
2385
Fig. 10. Peak value of the driving current versus initial charged voltage.
TABLE VI
E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS ON S INGLE A RMATURE L AUNCH
TABLE VII
E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS ON D OUBLE -A RMATURE L AUNCH
The experimental results validate that the double-armature
launch has higher energy efficiency than the single-armature
launch.The comparison between Tables II and VI indicates
that the experimental results on single-armature launch show
good consistency with the simulation results, but the com-
parison between Tables III and VII indicates that there is
a little gap between the experimental results on double-
armature launch and the simulation results. The causes of
the existent differences are considered to be mainly from the
consistency difference between the six driving coils because
of the machining process and assembly technology. The other
reason is considered to be come from the mutual influence
between the inner and outer armatures because of the variation
of the induced current and the difference of the speed between
two armatures, as shown in (9) and (10).
As mentioned in [6], when the current direction of the
adjacent driving coils is opposite, it can be achieve greater
armature propulsion force and higher energy efficiency. The
simulation and experimental results on double-armature launch
with opposite direction of the current of adjacent driving
coils are shown in Table VIII. The results indicate that the
muzzle velocity of the armature increases with the increase
of the initial charged voltage of capacitor. The comparison
between Tables VII and VIII shows that double armature
2386
TABLE VIII
R ESULTS ON D OUBLE -A RMATURE L AUNCH W ITH O PPOSITE D IRECTION
OF THE C URRENT OF A DJACENT D RIVING C OILS
launch of the opposite connection pattern, whose current
direction of the adjacent driving coils is opposite, has a higher
propulsion force and muzzle velocity. The main reasons of
the difference between the experimental data and the simu-
lation results in Table VIII are also considered to be mainly
from the consistency difference between the six driving coils,
the mutual influence between the inner and outer armature,
and the difference between the simulation and experimental
driving current as shown in Fig. 10.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper presented a single-stage double-armature MFEL.
The launch characteristics were analyzed by simulation and
experimental methods. The results of the study indicated
that the double-armature launch can significantly improve
the energy conversion efficiency of MFEL. The analysis
results showed that double-armature launch characteristics
were greatly influenced by the consistency difference between
the six driving coils and the mutual influence between the
inner and outer armatures. The next work will look forward
to further study the above problems.
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Zhongming Yan was born in Zhejiang, China,
in 1982. He received the Ph.D. degree in theory
of electrical engineering and new technology from
Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
He is currently an Associate Professor with
Southwest Jiaotong University. His current research
interests include the application of superconducting
technology and linear drive technology.
Xiaofei Long was born in Hunan, China, in 1991.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu,
China, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the
M.E. degree in theory of electrical engineering and
new technology.
He is currently with the School of Electrical Engi-
neering, Southwest Jiaotong University. His current
research interests include numerical analysis of elec-
tromagnetic fields and its applications.
Falong Lu was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1989.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Nantong University, Nantong, China, in 2013,
where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in
theory of electrical engineering and new technology.
He is currently with the School of Electrical Engi-
neering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu,
China. His current research interests include pulsed
power technology and its applications.
Yu Wang was born in Henan, China, in 1960.
He received the Ph.D. degree in physical electronics
from the Huazhong University of Science and Tech-
nology, Wuhan, China, in 2001.
He is currently a Professor with the School of
Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong Univer-
sity, Chengdu, China. His current research interests
include superconducting electrotechnics and material
technology.
Hanjun Liu, photograph and biography not available at the time of
publication.