Investigations on Electromagnetic Launching Characteristic of Aluminum Alloy Brush Armature

During electromagnetic launching, the current often concentrates on the surface of the armature due to the speed skin effect, which may reduce the service life of a launch system.To inhibit the concentration of the current density, a new type of aluminum alloy brush armature was proposed and its launching properties were studied.Results show that the main structure of the brush armature was intact within the scope of the experimental conditions.The contact pressure being kept constant, the mass loss of the brush armature at first increased with the increase of the current from 200 to 250 kA, then decreased with the further increase of the current from 250 to 350 kA.The mass loss of the brush armature decreased with the increase of the fiber diameter from 0.1 to 0.2 mm.An appropriate initial contact pressure could effectively reduce the mass loss of the armature.The brush armature with a different fiber diameter corresponded to a different optimal initial pressure.The microstructural observation results show that the main forms of damage of the aluminum fiber were mechanical wear and arc ablation.