Title :
Energy Partition and Scaling Issues in a Railgun
Author :
Satapathy, Sikhanda ; Vanicek, Harold
Author_Institution :
Inst. for Adv. Technol., Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX
Abstract :
We performed numerical simulations to characterize a conceptual naval railgun and to compute the spatial and temporal energy partitions among the kinetic, thermal, and magnetic energies. A numerical study was then undertaken to assess whether the energy partition, thermal, and kinematic characteristics can be examined through a subscale experiment. It turns out that not all field quantities can be consistently scaled, because the field equations involve both diffusion and wave equations. Three subscale cases-where displacement, velocity, and acceleration profiles were kept the same as the full-scale profiles-were considered. The velocity-matching scaling seems to provide the best case for subscale testing of thermal characteristics of a railgun. The results are expected to provide guidance for thermal management schemes and for suitable subscale tests
Keywords :
naval engineering; numerical analysis; railguns; testing; diffusion equation; energy partition; kinetic energy; magnetic energy; naval railgun; subscale testing; thermal energy; velocity matching scaling; wave equation; Acceleration; Conducting materials; Kinematics; Partial differential equations; Railguns; Rails; Temperature; Testing; Thermal management; Thermal stresses; Consistent scaling; coupled physics; energy partition; railguns; thermal management;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMAG.2006.887684