During the operation of the Quadrupole Compound Orbital electromagnetic launcher, the current is easy to gather in the armature and the rail contact surface. Serious turn and arc ablation can occur, causing damage to the rail and the armature and affecting the life of the launcher. To better solve the thermal ablation problem of the armature and the rail, three different configurations of the rail and the armature are established, and the current density, magnetic field distribution and electromagnetic force of the rail and the armature are compared and analyzed using the finite element method, and the effect of concave and convex values of the armature rail on current distribution and electromagnetic force is discussed. The results show that the planar armature can effectively reduce the maximum current density and mitigate thermal damage. The concave elliptical rail produces the largest electromagnetic thrust and the smallest radial electromagnetic force, and the armature is more stable during firing. The maximum current density and magnetic field strength are negatively correlated with the concave and convex values; the electromagnetic thrust applied to the concave elliptical armature is negatively correlated with the concave value, while the electromagnetic force applied to the convex elliptical armature is positively correlated with the convex value.

Armature is the core component of electromagnetic launcher. It not only plays the role of constituting current loop, but also provides launching power for projectile. Therefore, armature optimization is a key step to improve the comprehensive performance of six-pole orbital electromagnetic launcher. In this paper, the finite element simulation software Ansoft Maxwell is used to simulate and analyze the armature, and the influence of the main size of armature on the maximum current density and electromagnetic thrust of armature are obtained. At the same time, the optimal design of armature size is carried out by using matrix analysis method in orthogonal experiment. Finally, the optimized armature is verified by simulation. The results show that the optimized armature has the smallest maximum current density and the largest electromagnetic thrust in all size combinations.