Examination of the Effect of Different Projectile Geometries on the Performance of Reluctance Launcher Using 3D Finite Element Analysis

In this paper, the 3D model of a reluctance electromagnetic launcher was implemented using Maxwell program. The effect of the different projectile geometries was examined via the model. The projectile geometry with the highest velocity was determined. After constructing 3D model of the launcher, projectiles with different geometries were built and finally various projectiles with different geometries were analyzed. As a result, it was determined that the tubular projectile with 4 mm radius hole was the fastest among the tubular projectiles. Among the projectiles with notches, the projectile with 4 notches was launched faster than the others when the parameter was the number of notches, and the projectile with 0.5 mm notch radius was faster than the others when the parameter was the notch radius. In this paper, the highest velocity was reached the tubular projectile with 4 mm radius that was built with the 1050 material. The value of this velocity was 24.12 m/s