Multi-Objective Optimization of Pulsed Power Supply for a Railgun

A novel two-objective optimization design model for pulsed power supply (PPS) is proposed in this paper. The objectives are the muzzle velocity and the stored-to-kinetic energy efficiency. The design variables include the operating voltage and the trigger delay times between segments. The acceleration of the armature is constrained to lower than 106 m/s2. The optimization results for nuzzle velocity and the efficiency separately show the following: 1) The acceleration constraint has great influence on the performance; 2) wide current pulse yields high velocity but low efficiency; and 3) The operating voltage has to be increased to accelerate a heavier projectile to a certain velocity or at a certain efficiency. Pareto solution fronts for various projectile masses are found using the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) under the integration environment of MATLAB software.