Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Defence Technology
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/defence-technology

Research progress on advanced rail materials for electromagnetic

railgun technology
Hong-bin Xie a, b, Hui-ya Yang a, b, Jian Yu a, Ming-yu Gao a, b, Jian-dong Shou a, b,
You-tong Fang b, Jia-bin Liu a, b, *, Hong-tao Wang b, **
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
b
Center for X-mechanics, Faculty of Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Electromagnetic railgun attracts more and more attention due to its advantage in speed, cost, and
Received 26 January 2020 obscurity. It is found that the rail should withstand huge mechanical and thermal shocks during the
Received in revised form launching operation. The forms of rail failure are accompanied by gouge, grooving, transition, and arc
9 March 2020
ablation, etc. The service life of the rail has become a bottleneck restricting the development of elec-
Accepted 24 March 2020
Available online xxx
tromagnetic railgun technology. A series of researches are carried out to solve rail failure, including
analysing the failure mechanism and using various advanced rail materials. This paper provides a
comprehensive review of rail materials, including material composition, preparation, microstructure, and
properties. We begin from a short background of the requirement of the rail material. Then a detailed
investigation of rail materials is described, and the performances of those materials are introduced.
Finally, further development prospect of rail material is discussed.
© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi
Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction electromagnetic fields. There are three major problems in the

development of electromagnetic railguns, namely erosion protec-
The railgun is a typical electromagnetic launcher, using the tion of rail, miniaturization of the energy storage system, and in-
thrust from magnetic force instead of the gaseous-medium gas tegrated guided projectile for continuous firing [1]. Erosion
pressure of traditional cannon to accelerate a projectile to super protection of rail, as the first problem facing the engineering of
high speed about 2e3 km/s [1], breaking through the speed limit of electromagnetic railguns, is a bottleneck that must be solved in its
traditional cannon. The railgun platform has advantages of large application. The performance of the conductive rail material de-
firepower input, large bomb storage and flexible combat use. termines the lifetime of erosion protection. Many researches were
Therefore, its military application potential is very large, and it has focused on the design of advanced rail materials.
become an increasingly important part in the future weapon sys- During the launching operation, the rails experience high elec-
tems. The railgun mainly consists of one power source, two parallel trical current density, large electromagnetic loads and huge me-
long straight conductive rails, and a small mass armature which chanical and thermal shock. Under these extreme physical
places between the rails as a projectile. When the two rails are conditions, the forms of rail failure are accompanied by gouge,
connected to the power supply, a strong current is injected from grooving, transition, and arc ablation, etc. These failures greatly
one rail and flow back from the other rail through the armature to reduce the service life of the rail and have become a bottleneck
generate a strong magnetic field, as shown in Fig. 1. Meanwhile, the restricting the development of electromagnetic railgun technology.
armature is accelerated by Ampere’s force generated by
2. Different forms of rail failure

* Corresponding author. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang

Failure refers to the phenomenon that equipment and its com-
University, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
** Corresponding author.
ponents lose their original prescribed functions due to factors such
E-mail address: [email protected] (H.-t. Wang). as stress, time, temperature, and environmental media during use.
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society A series of researches have been carried out to analyze failure

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2020.03.014
2214-9147/© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-
ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: Xie H-b et al., Research progress on advanced rail materials for electromagnetic railgun technology, Defence
Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2020.03.014
2 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

straight line fit between the hardness of the harder material and

the shock pressure for a normal collision at the gouge threshold
velocity. Schneider [7] in 2006 used several techniques (separating
sabot, modified rails, and contact materials) to improve the gouge
threshold velocity significantly. Watt [2] in 2011 observed that pre-
coating the conductors of a railgun could delay the onset of gouge
significantly.

2.2. Groove

Groove occurs on both sides of the rail corresponding to the

position of the armature edge, and its position changes little with
the number of shots, as shown in Fig. 3 [8]. Grooving pits usually
start sharper and then gradually spread with cumulative effects.
The groove occurs during the initial phase of the launch and ex-
Fig. 1. Schematic of an electromagnetic railgun.
tends forward along the edge of the orbit. The initial groove is
caused by thermal softening and yield deformation of the material
mechanism, find the cause of failure and preventive measures, and under thermal stress. Later, as the temperature rises and the
improve the material performance to extend the life of the railgun. armature melts, molten aluminium accelerates the corrosion of
copper rails to form grooves.
Grooving damage was first observed at the University of Texas at
2.1. Gouge Austin in 2001 by Gee and Persad [9]. They attributed the grooving
damage to plastic deformation but did not rule out other processes.
Gouge mainly refers to the relative shear movement of the The research results of Meger et al. [10] in 2005 showed that the
armature between the rails at high speed. When the yield strength sliding aluminium interface provided an electrical contact which
of the rail material cannot withstand a huge impact and a portion of was dependent upon the location along both the length and width
the rail would be sheared off. As shown in Fig. 2 [2], a teardrop- of the rail. They concluded that the rail itself was damaged due to
shaped gouge was produced on the surface. A large-volume ma- localized heating enhanced by the velocity skin effect [11]. A pro-
terial exfoliated due to the instantaneous high temperature and the posed mechanism for grooving by Cooper et al. [12] in 2006 was the
frictional impact of the armature in a local high-strain physical dissolution of the rail material into molten aluminium. Watt et al.
environment on the local surface of the rail. [13] presented evidence that grooving was caused by aluminium
Graff and Dettloff [3] first reported gouges during high-speed liquid erosion instead of plasma heating or mechanical
rocket sleds tests in the 1960s. At that time, they considered deformation.
gouge as a damaging phenomenon occurring under the conditions
of high-velocity sliding contact. The first paper devoted to gouge in 2.3. Transition and arc ablation
railgun was published in 1982 by Barber and Bauer [4]. They
concluded that most gouges were caused by the interaction of A transition occurs when the armature separates from the rail,
microscopic asperities. Gouge was a threshold phenomenon, in and the contact changes from perfect solid contact to arc contact, as
that, for any given material pair, there was a threshold velocity shown in Fig. 4. The ablation power may increase nearly 100 times
below which gouge did not occur [5]. An investigation by Tarcza while the transition occurs, which leads to the rapid destruction of
and Weldon in 1997 [6] indicated that the threshold velocity was the conductor surface [14]. The transition also causes a series of
proportional to the yield strength and hardness of the material problems such as reducing launch efficiency, destroying insulation
involved. Their research showed that gouge was possible to occur materials, and damaging to rails. In short, the transition is very
even at low relative sliding velocities. Stefani and Parker [5] in 1999 harmful to the electromagnetic launch, which should be eliminated
reported the onset of gouge was governed by the hardness of the [15]. When the transition occurs, the muzzle voltage increases, the
harder material and by the densities and sound speeds of both muzzle resistance becomes larger, and the current decreases. The
materials. Their experimental results showed the existence of a transition point often appears in the area where the current drops
to 80%e90% of the peak value.
In 1990, Parks [16] first developed a melt-wave model for a solid
armature. Melt wave started at the rear of the armature, where a
current was concentrated by velocity skin effect and propagated
forward along with the rail/armature interface. Many other
scholars carried out further studies [17,18] on this theory with
numerical calculation as the main method. Another mechanism has
been put forward that changes in related mechanical properties
and electrical contact characteristics lead to transition. Stefani et al.
[19] in 2001 explored an “electrodynamic transition” theory. The
molten aluminum layer would be pulled out of the contact surface
of the pivot rail under the action of Lorentz force during the current
decline stage, resulting in transition. Barber and McNab [20] in
2003 established a model that predicted the conditions under
which blow-off would occur, and they found magnetic blow-off
forces might lead to the transition. Satapathy and Vanicek [21] in
Fig. 2. Gouges on the surface of copper alloy rails. Gouges are typically teardrop- 2006 established a 3-D model, which indicated that as applied
shaped [2]. current decreased in amplitude during the current down-slope, the

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Fig. 3. Grooves at positions of armature and insulator with respect to rail edges. (a) Top edge. (b) Bottom edge [8].

Fig. 4. A schematic diagram of the transition.

local current density and magnetic body-force density reversed in Improved performance has been sought through alloys such as Cu-
direction. Tang et al. [15] in 2017 found that the melting wave and Cr [28e30], Cu-Cr-Zr [31], CueMo, CueW [32] with an alloying
electromagnetic force led to the occurrence of transition together. method, Cu/Al2O3 [33,34] with a composite method and applica-
The melting wave would enlarge the separating electromagnetic tion of appropriate coatings on the copper [32,35].
force to accelerate the melting wave. The transition prediction
method will be more accurate when combining the melt-wave and 3.1. Copper alloys
the electromagnetic force.
Copper alloys are widely used in industrial fields as conductive
2.4. Requirements of the rail materials materials because of their excellent electrical and thermal con-
ductivity. However, with the rapid development of the electronic
The rail environment consists of large electrical currents, high and electrical industries, higher requirements have been placed on
local temperatures, large electromagnetic loads, and high sliding the high strength and high conductivity of copper alloys. At present,
velocities [22]. When choosing rail material, two objectives for most of methods improve the mechanical properties by sacrificing
railgun must be met. One is maximizing magnetic efficiency, and conductivity to a certain extent, such as the alloying method and
the other is maximizing durability. The magnetic efficiency can be composite material method. The alloying method is to strengthen
maximized by minimizing the electrical resistivity, and the rail the matrix by means of solid solution strengthening, precipitation
durability is dependent on different forms of rail failure. Based on strengthening, fine grain strengthening, and deformation
the analysis and summary of the above failure mechanism, we can strengthening. In the actual production and application of high-
obtain the performance requirements for the rail material: high strength and high-conductivity alloys, the use of a single
electrical conductivity, high hardness, high thermal conductivity strengthening method is often very limited, so most of them are
and high resistance to abrasion and arc ablation. combined with each other to achieve the ultimate goal. The com-
posite method is to strengthen the copper matrix by adding
3. Advanced rail materials second-phase particles, whiskers, or fibers.

During the research of electromagnetic guns for more than 50 3.1.1. CueCr
years, many researchers have tried single materials and composite Cr has low solid solubility in Cu. About 1.28 wt% of Cr is soluble
materials as electromagnetic launch rail. A series of research pro- in Cu at about 1080
C, and Cr is almost insoluble below 600
C. So
gresses are obtained to deepen the learning of the service charac- CueCr alloys are actually two-phase pseudo alloys. According to the
teristics of electromagnetic launch rail. The conducting rails of most conductivity theory, the conductivity of Cu alloys is mainly related
electromagnetic launchers have historically been copper-based, to the supersaturated solute atoms in the matrix and has little to do
such as electrolytic tough pitch copper and oxygen-free high con- with dislocations and grain boundaries. Therefore, the effects of the
ductivity copper [23e25] which are relatively pure metals. Pure various strengthening methods on the conductivity of CueCr are
copper is rather soft with coarse grains and many methods are obviously different. Table 1 lists the mechanical properties and
adopted to refine the grain to strengthen pure copper. High- electrical conductivity of the alloys under different strengthening
pressure torsion and nano-twinning are two effective strength- methods.
ening manners [26,27]. Considering there is large thermal shocking The CueCr alloy is a typical kind of aging hardening alloy.
during electromagnetic emission, the relative low softening tem- Therefore, a series of metastable phases will be precipitated in the
perature is another bottleneck for the application of pure copper. early stage of aging. The crystal structure of the phase is consistent

Please cite this article as: Xie H-b et al., Research progress on advanced rail materials for electromagnetic railgun technology, Defence
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4 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1
Mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of alloys with different preparation methods.

Preparation Alloy composition /(wt.%) Mechanical properties Conductivity

Strength /MPa Elongation /% Hardness /(HV) %IACS Ref.

Casting þ Cold deformation þ heat treatment Cu-0.5Cr 352 29 / 82.5 [36]

Cu-0.8Cr 350 2.14 126 80 [37]
Cu-0.89Cr-0.44Ag 541.5 / 205 83.2 [38]
Mechanical alloying þ heat treatment Cue5Cr 850 5.8 / 67 [39]
Rapid solidification þ heat treatment Solid solution Cu-1.3Cr 640 / 210 62 [40]
Cu-2.5Cr 777 / 260 48 [40]
Cu-0.8Cr 478 / 185 76 [37]
Cu-0.8Cr 235 / / 40 [37]

with the matrix, and it has a completely coherent relationship with process of the alloy becomes more complicated. Tang et al. [56]
the matrix. The precipitation of metastable phases can effectively pointed out that Cr element mainly existed in the G.P. region of
reduce the elastic strain energy caused by the coherent interface. As black/white petals, and black dot-like contrast in the early aging
the aging process progresses, these metastable phases gradually period. With the progress of the aging, the alloy reaches a peak
transform into precipitated phases with stable structures. When aging state, at which time the G.P. regions in the alloy are replaced
the aging temperature is high, the metastable phase is not formed by fine precipitates. The fine precipitates are a Heusler phase with a
during the supersaturated solid solution decomposition of the long-range periodic structure. Its chemical formula is CrCu2(Zr,
alloy, and the body-centered cubic (b.c.c.) Cr phase is directly Mg), and the daughter cell has an NeW relationship with the ma-
precipitated. trix. When the aging temperature is 500
C, the precipitated phase
In the studies of the relationship between the structure and begins to grow and gradually loses the coherent relationship with
properties of binary alloys, Komen et al. [41e43] believed that the the matrix. When the temperature rises to 550
C, the precipitates
strength of CueCr alloys mainly originated from the dispersed gradually decompose into the coarse Cr phase and Cu4Zr phase.
phase. Knight et al. [44] observed the evolution of the precipitated Batra [57] believed that there were two different forms of Cr phases
phase of Cu-0.15% Cr alloy during 300e500
C aging process and in Cu-0.8%Cr-0.08%Zr alloys. One was a crude Cr phase which was
found that the alloy precipitated the Cr phase of 5e10 nm even after not dissolved in the solid solution process. The other one was the Cr
500
C aging for 4 h. Jin et al. [45e48] obtained some conclusions phase of the b.c.c. structure precipitated during the aging process.
when studying the precipitation process of the Cr phase. Among According to the diffraction spots of the precipitated phase, the
them, the precipitation sequence of the Cr phase can be summa- arrangement of the precipitated phase was similar to the Heusler
rized as supersaturated solid solution, nano-scale Cr-enriched phase, and the chemical formula was CrCu2(Zr). Tenwiek [58]
bundledCr-riched G.P. regiondcoherent b.c.c. structure Cr pha- pointed out that Zr mainly existed in the form of Cu5Zr compound
sednon-coherent b.c.c. structure Cr phase. in Cu. The precipitation process of the Cr phase was that Cr element
preferentially aggregated and grew on the (001) plane of the matrix
3.1.2. CueCreZr and gradually transformed into face-centered cubic (f.c.c.) struc-
CueCreZr alloys actually improve the performance of the alloy ture. The Cr phase of the f.c.c. structure was coherent with the
by adding a small amount of Zr element and trace amounts of other matrix. As the aging went on, the precipitates continued to coarsen.
alloying elements on the basis of CueCr binary system alloys. In this process, the structure of the Cr phase was transformed from
Among the high-strength and high-conductivity copper alloys, f.c.c. to b.c.c. structure.
CueCreZr alloys have attracted the most attention. CueCreZr
chemical composition (mass fraction) is 0.25%e1.2% of the content
3.1.3. Cu/Al2O3
of Cr, 0.08%e0.20% of the content of Zr. The hardness is 78e83 HRB,
Cu/Al2O3 is one of the most typical dispersion-strengthened
softening temperature is 550
C, tensile strength reaches above
copper materials developed since the 1970s. It was first commer-
600 MPa, and electrical conductivity reaches above 80% IACS. The
cialized in the United States and mass-produced under the name
hardness, strength, electrical conductivity, and thermal conduc-
“Glidcop”. It is used in applications that require both high electrical
tivity of CueCreZr alloys can be significantly improved by the aging
conductivity and high-temperature strength. Cu/Al2O3 alloy is a
treatment. The mechanical and electrical properties of typical
new type of composite material with excellent comprehensive
CueCreZr alloys are shown in Table 2 [49].
physical and mechanical properties. The dispersed phase particles
The high strength of CueCreZr alloy is mainly caused by the
in Cu/Al2O3 composite are oxides with a high melting point, high-
dispersed nano-Cr phase. The addition of trace Zr element can not
temperature stability, and high hardness. In 1973, Glidcop Al-10,
only increase the strength of the alloy, but also affect the precipi-
Glidcop Al-35, and Glidcop Al-60 were launched by the American
tation and growth of the Cr phase. As a result, the precipitation
SCM Company. Their tensile strengths were 500 MPa, 600 MPa, and
620 MPa, respectively, and their electrical conductivities were 92%
Table 2 IACS, 85% IACS, and 80% IACS, respectively.
Mechanical property and electrical conductivity of CueCreZr alloys. The dispersion strengthening of Cu/Al2O3 composite relies on
the in-situ reaction to generate a highly heat-resistant and stable
Composition /(wt. %) Strength /MPa)\ Conductivity /(%IACS) Ref.
nano-reinforced phase Al2O3 to greatly strengthen the copper
Cu-0.4Cr-0.2Zr 637 80 [49]
matrix while maintaining the high electrical conductivity. The size
Cu-0.4 Cr-0.3Zr 568 75.3 [50]
Cu-0.45Cr-0.12Zr 612 78.1 [51] of Al2O3 must be nano-scale, generally below 50 nm, preferably less
Cue1Cr-0.1Zr 690 67 [52] than 10 nm. Nano-scale strengthened particles play a strong role in
Cue1Cr-0.1Zr 648 79.8 [53] hindering the movement of dislocations and grain boundaries,
Cue1Cr-0.1Zr 832 71.2 [54] resulting in Orowan strengthening and fine grain strengthening. Al
Cue1Cr-0.1Zr 612 84.7 [55]
dispersion-strengthened copper alloys are commonly prepared by

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 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

mechanical ball milling hot extrusion method, in-situ synthesis, Due to the large differences in the densification of Cu and W, the
method and internal oxidation method. The properties of Cu/Al2O3 dispersion problem has a huge impact on the properties of the
composite with different Al2O3 contents are shown in Table 3. composites. Studies have shown that ultrafine nanocomposite
Fig. 5 [63] showed the relationship between the tensile strength powders can significantly reduce the sintering temperature and the
of Cu/0.5 vol% Al2O3 and cold-rolled deformed pure copper as a activation energy, and promote the sintering process. Zhang et al.
function of temperature. The tensile strength and yield strength of [66] used micron-grade industrial copper powder mixed with
dispersed copper in the test temperature range were much higher micron- and nano-sized tungsten powder to prepare CueW75
than those of pure copper in comparison. The decrease in the composites. They found that smaller tungsten power led to better
strength of the Cu/Al2O3 tended to slow down, and then main- performance of the composites. A relative density of 98.9% and a
tained a linear decrease above 400
C. This was because the Al2O3 conductivity of 48.7% IACS was obtained when the tungsten pow-
particles pin the growth of grains and the movement of dislocations der size reached 400 nm. Cheng et al. [67] used CuO and WO3 to
under high-temperature effectively. Guo et al. [64] found that the prepare nano- WeCu composites by ball milling. The particle sizes
compressive behavior of this material largely depended on its of tungsten and copper were less than 100 nm after reduction.
original microstructure, strain rate, and temperature. WeCu composites had a relative density of 99% and excellent
thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. A novel method of
nitridation-denitridation [68] was developed to prepare WeCu
3.1.4. WeCu powders including calcination, nitridation, and denitridation. The
WeCu material is an incompatible two-phase composite ma- performance of WeCu powder mainly depended on the
terial composed of refractory tungsten and conductive copper. It nitridation-denitridation process. The spherical WeCu powder
combines the respective characteristics of tungsten and copper, with a mean particle size of 90.19 nm was obtained when the
such as high-temperature strength, high electrical and thermal nitridation temperature and the denitridation temperature were
conductivity, good electrical corrosion resistance, high hardness, 650
C and 875
C, respectively. WeCu alloys were prepared by
low thermal expansion coefficient, and certain plasticity. Moreover, sintering the composite powder in hydrogen at 1200
C for 90 min.
its corresponding mechanical and physical properties can be The relative density and hardness reached 98.2% and 258.7 HV,
controlled and adjusted by changing its composition ratio. It has respectively.
been mainly used as electrical contacts for various high-voltage
electrical switches since the 1930s. Because of its high withstand
voltage strength and low electrical ablation performance, it has 3.1.5. MoeCu
promoted the high-voltage electrical switches to increase the Similar to WeCu, MoeCu is a pseudo-alloy composed of two
voltage level and power capacity continuously. WeCu materials incompatible metal phases on the structure. It combines the
were used as electrodes for resistance welding and electrical pro- respective performance characteristics and has the advantages of
cessing, and used as a protective material exposed to high- high electrical, thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion coef-
temperature gas in aerospace technology. WeCu materials were ficient, and good heat resistance. MoeCu is used as substrates, in-
used in large-scale integrated circuits as electronic packaging and serts, connectors, and heat sinks in large-scale integrated circuits
heat sink materials in the 1990s. The compositions and properties and high-power microwave devices. MoeCu material has lower
of WeCu materials for vacuum contacts produced by some factories density and easier deformability than WeCu material. The
are shown in Table 4 [65]. composition and properties of MoeCu materials for vacuum con-
tacts produced by some factories are shown in Table 5 [69].
Table 3 A. Kumar et al. [70] prepared Mo-20% Cu powder by mechanical
The properties of Cu/Al2O3 composite with different Al2O3 contents. alloying. After 40 h of alloying, it was found that the particle size
Composition Strength /MPa Conductivity /(%IACS) Ref. reached about 20 nm, and the distribution became uniform. After
X-ray diffraction test, the intensity of the diffraction peak of Cu
Cu/2.75Al2O3(vol. %) 570 85 [59]
Cu/4.5Al2O3(vol. %) 522 90 [60] became smaller, indicating that some Cu was segregated at the
Cu/5Al2O3(vol. %) 650 71.1 [61] grain boundaries of Mo. At this time, the solvent and capacity are in
Cu/0.3Al2O3(vol. %) 440 94.1 [62] a metastable state, which will greatly improve the sintering activity
of the material. It makes the MoeCu nano powder reach a higher
density at certain sintering temperature. Mo-15 wt.%Cu powder
was synthesized by a gelatification-reduction process, in which
precursor gelcasts were obtained by adding an initiator into a
suspension containing ammonium heptamolybdate, copper oxide,
acrylamide organic monomer, and some additives. The gelcasts
were then calcined and hydrogen-reduced to convert into MoeCu
powder. After drying, calcination and reduction, the prepared
Mo-15 wt.%Cu powder [71] had a size of 100e200 nm. The powder
had extremely high sintering activity. The compacted density of the
sintered body reached 98%, flexural strength and electrical con-
ductivity were 833.65 MPa and 41.75%IACS after sintering at
1150
C for 2 h. MoeCu powder with a core-shell structure was
fabricated by heterogeneous precipitation and reduction process
[72]. After sintered at 1150
C, the obtained alloy had a density of
97.02%, a hardness of 191.1 HV, and an electrical and thermal con-
ductivity of 27 MS/m and 188.64 Wm1K1, respectively. The
excellent properties were attributed to the core-shell microstruc-
Fig. 5. Yield strength of Cue0.5 vol% Al2O3 composite and several compared materials ture that almost every Mo particle was capsulated by a continuous
at elevated temperatures [63]. network structure of Cu.

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Table 4
Compositions and properties of WeCu materials for vacuum contacts produced by different factories.

Material trademark Composition /(wt.%) Hardness /(HV) Conductivity /(%IACS) Producer

K10VS 90We10Cu 313 ± 5 37.9 Austria

K20VS 80We20Cu 260 43.1 Plansee Co.
K33VS 67We33Cu 190 ± 20 48.3
W20CuV 80We20Cu 220 27.5 German
W35CuV 65We35Cu 150 39.6 DoDuCo Co.
W35CuSbV 65We35Cu þ Sb 200e240 17.2e27.6
W10CuV 90We10Cu 240e260 37.9 Advanced Technology and Materials Co. Ltd.
W15CuV 85We15Cu 220e240 41.3

Table 5
Composition and properties of MoeCu materials for vacuum contacts produced by some factories.

Material trademark Composition /(wt.%) Hardness /(HV) Conductivity /(%IACS) Producer

Mo20CuV 80Moe20Cu 220 27.6 German

Mo25CuV 75Moe25Cu 180 31 DoDuCo Co.
Mo30CuVS 70Moe30Cu 170 ± 20 46.5
Mo35CuV 65Moe35Cu 150 39.7
Mo40CuV 60Moe40Cu 140 44.8
Mo30CuVS 70Moe30Cu 170 ± 20 46.5 Austria
Mo40CuVS 60Moe40Cu 160 ± 20 51.7 Plansee Co.
Mo50CuVS 50Moe50Cu 150 ± 20 55.2

3.1.6. Summary of rail materials severe wear erosion, spark erosion, and pitting processes during
At present, many progresses have been made on the composi- the firing of the gun [35]. These wear and erosion effects make the
tion design, preparation and processing technology of high- operation of the electromagnetic guns costly and inefficient. These
strength and high-conductivity copper alloys. The strength and latter deficiencies, such as gouges, grooves, and arc ablation, are
electrical conductivity of copper alloys in various systems are even more critical when the electromagnetic railgun is designed to
summarized in Fig. 6 for comparison. Those copper alloys have operate in the hypervelocity regime. Electromagnetic guns require
approached their limits of combination properties, based on the the use of materials with a much higher level of thermomechanical
literature analysis. It is difficult to further improve the strength and stability. Attention is now focused on the application of appropriate
conductivity, unless new materials system or new processing coatings on copper to enhance its wear and thermal resistance, and
technology is adopted. Although plenty of researches have been still maintain its excellent electrical and thermal conductivity [35].
done on the hardness, strength and electrical conductivity of James [74] found that the theoretical limit speed of the elec-
various copper alloys, few work is focused on the special environ- tromagnetic railgun was related to the skin effect of the speed of
ments such as extremely mechanical wear and high temperature the pivot rail material. When the armature reached a certain speed,
thermal shock. the armature/rail interface changed from solid/solid contact to
liquid/solid contact. The critical speed corresponding to this tran-
sition is also called the transition speed, which reflects the basic
3.2. Application of coating for rails
properties of the armature rail material and determines the
armature limit speed. The theoretical calculation results showed
Copper is most often now used as the choice material for rail
that the critical transition speed of pure copper rails was less than
applications. The performance of copper, however, has not been
0.5 km/s [74]. If a high melting point Mo or W was wrapped on the
fully satisfactory. This is because copper rail surfaces often exhibit
surface of pure copper rails, the critical transition speed could be
increased to more than 2 km/s. This study provided a new idea for
increasing the limit speed of the armature, that is, the surface of
pure copper rails was wrapped with a high melting point Mo or W
material, and the thickness of the rails coating layer was optimized
to meet the requirements of the thermal environment without
seriously damaging the electromagnetic field.
Siopis et al. [22] considered the material of the guide rail and
adopted a systematic material selection (Ashby method). They
believed that the guide rail mainly had three failure modes such as
gouges, grooves, and fractures. Resistivity is the key factor affecting
electromagnetic energy while tensile strength, melting point, and
elongation are the main factors affecting the failure. Fig. 7 showed a
multi-objective trade-off diagram and a schematic diagram of po-
tential mixed materials [22]. The lower the value in the trade-off
diagram, the more feasible it is. After analysing and comparing
the existing 2790 kinds of materials, it was found that no single
material could match well. After considering different material
composite models, it is concluded that the overlay structure can
achieve the best match of two key factors. The cladding structure
Fig. 6. Comparison of combination properties of electrical conductivity and strength
proposed by Siopis refers to a composite structure with copper
for typical copper alloys (Some strengths are calculated as 3.3 times of the hardness
[73]). alloy as the conductive substrate and tungsten, chromium, nickel,

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 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx 7

Fig. 7. Multi-objective trade-off diagram and schematic diagram of potential hybrid materials. (a) Magnetic energy (electrical resistivity) and rail durability (density/UTS); (b)
magnetic energy (electrical resistivity) and durability (melt energy density); (c) magnetic energy (electrical resistivity) and rail durability (strain-to-fracture); (d) Four potential
hybrid material configurations [22].

or tantalum as the damage-resistant surface layer. reduces the life of the rail as shown in Fig. 8.
Based on the above theoretical analysis results, various re-
searchers have proposed a variety of cladding structure guide rails, 3.2.2. Cold spraying
using different surface strengthening technologies to improve the Cold spraying is a thermal spraying technique based entirely on
wear resistance and ablation resistance of the track surface. aerodynamic principles. During the spraying process, the particles
collide with the substrate at very high speed (300e1200 m/s), and
3.2.1. Electroplating the coating is deposited by forming a strong plastic deformation.
Electroplating is a surface treatment method that deposits and When using this technology to prepare conductive wear-resistant
forms a coating on the surface of a substrate by the principle of self-lubricating coatings, particles do not undergo melting-re-
electrolysis. Silver-cyanide-free plating was performed in a thio- solidification during flight and deposition due to the low working
sulfate bath containing the main salts of AgNO3 and AgBr, respec- temperature (100e600
C). Therefore, particle oxidation and phase
tively [75]. The obtained Ag coating had nano crystal grains with an defects are avoided and the conductive properties of the coating are
average size of 55 nm. Compared with the bath containing AgBr maintained.
main salt, the bath containing AgNO3 main salt has a larger current Tazegul et al. [79] used a cold spraying process to add Al2Cu
density range, and the corresponding Ag coating has higher micro- particles in copper-based coatings. The bonding effect between
hardness and smaller grain size. Lv et al. [76] studied the graphite- Al2Cu particles and Cu particles was enhanced, and chemical
reinforced Ag-based composite coating by a composite electrode- compatibility was good. The friction coefficient of the coating
position method, and the friction coefficient was reduced by 70% containing 10% Al2Cu decreased by 33%, and the wear rate
compared with the silver coating. decreased by 80%. Tazegul et al. [80] also used cold spraying to
McNeal [77] compared the damage of CueW rails, chrome- prepare a SiC-reinforced copper-based composite coating on the
plated CueW rails, and chrome-plated pure Cu rails after multi- surface of pure copper. As the SiC content of the hard particles
ple launches. It was found that chrome-plated pure Cu rails suffered increased, the wear resistance of the coating improved.
the most damage, while chrome-plated CueW rails suffered the
least damage. Castro-Dettmer et al. [78] observed that cracks and 3.2.3. Supersonic plasma spraying
holes appeared in the chromium layer. The heat emission effect Supersonic plasma spraying uses a rigid non-transferable
reduces the hardness of the coating and the substrate. The cracking plasma arc as a heat source to heat the working gas to form a
of the chromium coating was produced by the mismatch of the high-temperature and high-speed plasma jet, thereby heating,
thermal expansion coefficients of chromium and copper. Addi- accelerating, and forming a molten particle stream of the powder in
tionally, the erosion of the Cu substrate by the molten Al through the incident stream. Since the temperature of the plasma jet can
the cracks of the chromium coating is an important factor that reach tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, coatings such as

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8 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 8. Cracks on the surface of the chrome plating of pure Cu rails and the microstructure of liquid Al eroded the Cu matrix through cracks [78].

refractory metals and oxide ceramics and cermets can be prepared surface by laser cladding with coaxial powder feeding. X-ray
using plasma spray technology. diffraction analysis results showed that the coating was mainly
Liu et al. [81,82] used a supersonic plasma spraying technique to composed of g- (Ni, Cr, Mo, W) solid solution, some carbides, and
prepare a Mo-based coating on the surface of a copper rail. The silicides. The average hardness of the coating was about 360 HV0.1,
conductivity of the coating was 6.01% IACS, and the micro-hardness which was about five times that of pure copper. The dry sliding
was 482.3HV0.1. The addition of the W element improved the wear test showed that the wear resistance of the copper was
micro-hardness of the coating, suppressed the occurrence of significantly improved after laser cladding. Dehm et al. [85] pre-
planning and scratches, and also enhanced its wear resistance. pared a CueNieBeSi intermediate layer by plasma spraying on a
After current-carrying friction and wear tests, the surface of the pure copper substrate, and then prepared a Co-based hardfacing on
MoeW coating experienced adhesive wear, abrasive wear, and arc the intermediate layer. The matrix of the coating was b-Co as it was
ablation wear. alloyed with Mo, Cr and Si and combined with rapid cooling. Yan
et al. [86] successfully prepared a NieCr/TiB2 metal matrix com-
3.2.4. Laser cladding posite (MMC) coating with a small amount of CaF2 on a CueCreZr
Laser cladding is a method of adding a cladding material and alloy substrate by laser cladding. The microstructure of the coating
using a high-energy-density laser beam to fuse it to form a was mainly composed of dendrites, cystiform-dendrites, and par-
metallurgical additive cladding layer on the surface of the sub- ticles. By increasing the content of TiB2 to 20 wt%, the dendritic
strate. As an important means of surface modification, laser clad- microstructural features transformed into particles. Compared with
ding has the advantages of high flexibility, small thermal influence a pure copper substrate, laser cladding NieCr/TiB2 MMC coating on
on the workpiece, and high bonding strength between the coating copper had higher micro-hardness and better wear resistance. The
and the substrate. Therefore, it is widely used in metal surface highest micro-hardness was 946 HV0.1, which was eight times
modification of materials. A fine-grained, high-performance higher than the original substrate. The coefficient of friction of the
coating can be obtained by this technique. However, it is difficult to coating was significantly reduced to about 0.24, and a relatively
perform laser cladding on the copper surface because copper has a smooth wear surface was observed. Ng et al. [87] used laser clad-
high reflectivity to laser light. Many scholars have carried out a ding technology to form a Mo/Ni/Cu “sandwich” structure coating
series of researches on this problem. on a Cu substrate. The introduction of Ni in the intermediate layer
Bysakh et al. [83] used an 8 kW CO2 laser to prepare alloyed greatly alleviated the problems of large differences in thermal
layers of CueFeeAleSi. The formation of micron-level iron-rich properties and low mutual solubility between Cu and Mo. As the
balls with DO3 structure in the copper-rich f.c.c. matrix indicated hardness of the modified layer increased, the wear resistance was
that the immersed miscible gap was approached during laser also increased by 7 times. The average resistance of the modified
processing. In the later stages of solidification, the solute rejection layer was measured to be 2.5  107 U∙cm2. Li et al. [88] used laser
process resulted in the evolution of submicron-sized copper-rich surface modification technology to form a nickel-based (NiCrBSi)
dispersions within the iron-rich spheres. Zhang et al. [84] suc- modified layer doped with Ta2O5 þ C powder. Fig. 9 shows the
cessfully deposited nickel-based alloy coating onto a pure copper magnified scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograph and

Fig. 9. Modified layer (a) magnified SEM micrograph; (b) micro-hardness profile along the cross-section [88].

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 H.-b. Xie et al. / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx 9

Table 6
The overall design requirements and solutions of the rail materials.

Railgun requirements Maximized magnetic energy Maximized durability

Service environment Large electrical currents
Large electro-magnetic loads High local temperatures High sliding velocities
Challenges Bending Grooves Gouges Transition and arc ablation
Rail requirements High strength High thermal conductivity High hardness High resistance to arc ablation
Status Partly solved Little solved
Solutions Development of high-strength and high-conductivity rails Application of coatings on rails
Trends Approach the limit A fresh area

micro-hardness profile along cross-section of the modified layer. A (3) The understanding of the conductive wear resistance and
granular TaC phase (P1) and a coarse needle-like Cr3C2 phase (P2) ablation resistance of the coating should be deepened. The
were formed. The TaC particles synthesized in situ were uniformly mechanism of current-carrying tribology of the coating un-
dispersed in g (Ni, Fe) solid solution (P3) and (Cu, Ni, Fe) solid so- der severe working conditions and the mechanism of the arc
lution (P4). It was found that the bonding strength between the ablation under extreme conditions are highly required.
modified layer and the matrix increased, and the surface hardness (4) Standard methods for friction and wear tests under high-
increased to 918 HV0.1. The conductivity was 84.5% IACS and the speed, current-carrying, and magnetic-field conditions
wear resistance was 2.5 times higher than the sample without should be developed.
coating.
Declaration of competing interest
3.2.5. Summary of surface coating
The four kinds of surface modification techniques on copper The authors declare that they have no known competing
alloys are introduced. Among them, laser cladding technology is a financial interests or personal relationships that could have
promising surface treatment technology due to its high flexibility, appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
small thermal influence and large adjustable range of coating
thickness. At present, the research on the preparation process and
Acknowledgment
microscopic mechanism of copper alloy coatings is still in its in-
fancy. In particular, mechanical and thermal shock tests of surface
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of
coatings to simulate electromagnetic emission processes are still
China (No. 2017YFB1200800), the National Natural Science Foun-
lacking.
dation of China (No. 11725210, 11572281, 51827810, 51637009), the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
4. Conclusions and prospects of rail materials
(2018XZZX001-05) and the National Student’s Platform for Inno-
vation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (201910335115).
In this study, different failure mechanisms of rail materials are
analyzed. In consideration of magnetic efficiency and durability, the
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