Download Gauss Coil Gun

Portable Mass Driver
Presentation by:
Brad Garrison
Overview: Mass Drivers
 Classification
of devices that use
electromagnetic forces to propel an
object
 More efficient than existing means of
propulsion.
A Brief “History” of Mass
Drivers
Current Development:

Navy/Army Research

Amateur Research
Future Possibilities

Peaceful Uses
Ground Based Mass Drivers

Military Uses
Rail Guns
Orbital Mass Drivers
Electro Thermal Chemical Guns
Spacecraft Based Mass Drivers
Types of Mass Drivers

Rail

Coil

Gauss

Disk
Project Motivations
 Interest
in electromagnetism
 Little research being conducted
 Current designs are repetitive
Project Goals






To construct a Gauss/Coil Gun that is portable and
easily operated
For the projectile to have a muzzle velocity of
approximately 50m/s
All components will be powered by a single
rechargeable battery
High rate of fire (60rpm)
Extremely durable
Completely safe for anyone to use
Possible Designs

Coil Gun

Rail Gun
Rail Gun Limitations

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High “recoil” force
Extremely high temperatures
Armature vaporization
Expensive materials
More applicable to larger designs
Coil Gun



Lower operating temperatures than
Rail Gun
No projectile vaporization
Lower, more manageable “recoil”
forces
Coil Parameters
►
NL : Number of Layers > 30 -- Inductance will be unreasonably
large.
►
LL : Low Inductance, < 5 uH -- Unusually low inductance because
the wire resistance had to be small in order to get the target current.
This happens when the goal is very high current with a low voltage.
►
TC : Time Constant > 2.0 msec -- Current rise time is too slow.
►
OR : Outer Radius > 1.5 inches -- Too many layers of large wire. A
smaller wire size will give a higher current density in a smaller space.
►
CD : Current Density > 1000 MA/m^2 -- Practical value for copper
wire to limit the heating.
Start Position
Coil Cutoff
Coil Shielding
Projectile Design
Maximum Volume with Minimum Mass
Ferromagnetic
Silicon Steel: the ideal material
Drawbacks of Existing
Designs




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Most are driven off of
AC power making
portability impossible.
DC designs operate at
a much reduced power.
All have a very low rate
of fire
Most are dangerous to
use
All are very fragile
Capacitors used are
expensive and heavy
Preliminary Design
Complications



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Barrel must be strong enough to withstand
compressive force of the coil
Capacitor banks can not provide pluses fast
enough for the desired rate of fire
Capacitors may fail after repeated use
Heat build up
Initial Design
Initial Design
Complications




Induction coil produces high voltage pulses not high
current pulses
Electromagnets will drain the battery even in
standby mode
Optical gates will further drain battery and
introduce more fragile components into the design
Microprocessor vulnerable to magnetic fields and
heat
Second Design
Induction coil replaced with photo capacitors
Electromagnets replaced with permanent magnets utilizing principals of
the Gauss Rifle
This eliminates the need for photo gates as well
Second Design
Charge Booster
(example is using a bank of 20 1.2V 0.25Amp AA batteries)
Charge indicator
► The
indicator will
signal when the
capacitor is fully
charged
Parallel Charging
Resonance Charging
►
Resonance charging will be used to conserve energy and to decrease
the charging time
Possible Problems
► Fragility
of permanent magnets
► Resistive heating of the coil
► Over working the capacitors
► Battery life
Future Improvements
► Optimized
► Heat
coil
sinks
► Improved indicators
Conclusion
► Coil
guns are not practical for portable
designs.
► Superconductors
► Specialized Capacitors/Semiconductors
► New coil designs
► Advanced
batteries
References
1. anothercoilgunsite.com
2. coilgun.com
3. powerlabs.com
4.mgc314.home.comcast.net
5. scitoys.com
Questions?