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    Electromagnetic Coil Gun - Introduction and Construction

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    Ayush Choudhary
    This document introduces the concept of an electromagnetic coil gun and describes its construction and working principles. It is comprised of the following main components: 1. Coils arranged along a barrel that are switched on and off to accelerate a projectile via magnetic forces. 2. A ferromagnetic or conducting projectile that is accelerated through the coils to high velocity. 3. A capacitor that stores the energy needed for acceleration and discharges it through the coils. 4. Precise timing of the current through the coils is needed to accelerate the projectile without arresting it in the coils.

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    Electromagnetic Coil Gun - Introduction and Construction

    Uploaded by

    Ayush Choudhary
    65 views5 pages
    This document introduces the concept of an electromagnetic coil gun and describes its construction and working principles. It is comprised of the following main components: 1. Coils arranged along a barrel that are switched on and off to accelerate a projectile via magnetic forces. 2. A ferromagnetic or conducting projectile that is accelerated through the coils to high velocity. 3. A capacitor that stores the energy needed for acceleration and discharges it through the coils. 4. Precise timing of the current through the coils is needed to accelerate the projectile without arresting it in the coils.

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    This document introduces the concept of an electromagnetic coil gun and describes its construction and working principles. It is comprised of the following main components: 1. Coils arranged along a barrel that are switched on and off to accelerate a projectile via magnetic forces. 2. A ferromagnetic or conducting projectile that is accelerated through the coils to high velocity. 3. A capacitor that stores the energy needed for acceleration and discharges it through the coils. 4. Precise timing of the current through the coils is needed to accelerate the projectile without arresting it in the coils.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    65 views5 pages

    Electromagnetic Coil Gun - Introduction and Construction

    Uploaded by

    Ayush Choudhary
    This document introduces the concept of an electromagnetic coil gun and describes its construction and working principles. It is comprised of the following main components: 1. Coils arranged along a barrel that are switched on and off to accelerate a projectile via magnetic forces. 2. A ferromagnetic or conducting projectile that is accelerated through the coils to high velocity. 3. A capacitor that stores the energy needed for acceleration and discharges it through the coils. 4. Precise timing of the current through the coils is needed to accelerate the projectile without arresting it in the coils.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    Electromagnetic Coil Gun – Introduction and

    Construction
    Akash Kumar, Ayush Choudhary, Aman Manna, Anmol Varshney,
    Shashank Saxena, Ankit yadav, Akash, Kumar Kartikey,
    Shivam Tomar, Anurag Panwar
    Department of Applied Sciences, KIET Group of Institutions, Ghaziabad

    Abstract
    We look in our country and we see that a lot of pollution has been increasing enormously day by day with the
    increase in number of vehicles. So what if we replace fuel by some electricity based device that can be used to
    propel (accelerating and decelerate the vehicles). As we know recently most of the researchers are interested in
    the field of space science but the research going in this field is not economic because the basic requirement for
    this work is fuel which is costly and not completely efficient. So to solve this problem in this paper we discuss
    the concept of electromagnetic coil gun which is based upon the principle of electromagnetic induction. A coil
    gun is a type of projectile accelerator consisting of one or more coil used as electromagnets in the configuration
    of a linear motor that accelerate a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity .

    Keywords: Coil gun, Projectile, Capacitor, Inductor

    1.Introduction
    Generally in coil guns there are one or more coils arranged along a barrel, so the path of the accelerating
    projectile lies along the central axis of the coils. The coils are switched on and off in a precise timed sequence so
    that the projectile can be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. Coil guns are distinct
    from rail guns, as the direction of acceleration in a rail gun is at right angles to the central axis of the current
    loop formed by the conducting rails[1]. The rail guns usually require the use of sliding contacts to pass a large
    current through the projectile but coilguns do not necessarily require sliding contacts. While some simple coil
    gun concepts can use ferromagnetic projectiles or even permanent magnet projectiles, most designs for high
    velocities actually incorporate a coupled coil as part of the projectile. Another form of Gauss Rifle is one which
    consists of a strong magnet on a rail. There are two metal balls on one end of the magnet. Another ball is placed
    next to the magnet, but not attracted to it. When the ball is pushed toward the magnet, it accelerates until it hits
    the magnet with some force and velocity. The momentum is transferred through the magnet to the last ball,
    which flies off the end with nearly as much force as it started with.
    Electromagnetic accelerating systems are usually constructed as rail guns [2] or coil guns [3]. The rail gun is
    conceptually more simple then the coil gun, but has some inherent problems with plasma [4] during the
    projectile launches. So the rail gums are not efficient for many applications. On the other hand, the coil gun is
    much more suitable for common applications even though it needs some additional supporting facilities [5] such
    as energy accumulator, switcher and driver. Its main advantage lies in the elimination of almost all negative
    phenomena damaging the launch device. A coil gun or Gauss rifle is a type of projectile acceleration consisting
    of one or more coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a linear motor that accelerate
    a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity. In almost all coil gun configurations, the coils and
    the gun barrel are arranged on a common axis. It is not a rifle as the barrel is not rifled. The name "Gauss" is in
    reference to Carl Friedrich Gauss, who formulated mathematical descriptions of the magnetic effect used by
    magnetic accelerator cannons.
    1.1 Principle of the coil gun
    A coil gun propels a projectile using the electromagnetic force generated by Fleming’s Right hand law when
    applying the current to the coil in solenoid form. The coil gun is propelled by a force that is acting in all
    directions on the solenoid by passing through the inside of the cylindrical coil. Fig 1 shows the principle of coil
    gun. The force acting on the circumferences of the projectile by the solenoid is separated into a component in
    the direction of the circumference and a component in the direction of the axis by the solenoid. Out of these, the
    projectile is propelled by the force in the direction of the axis in addition, the force in the direction of the
    circumference is balanced with the pivot point when the horizontal axis of the projectile matches the horizontal
    axis of the flyway tube so that the projectile can be propelled from the flyway tube without any mechanical
    friction. So there is no theoretical limit to the velocity.

    Fig 1:Principle of coil gun

    1.2 Types of coil gun


    There are two main types or setups of a coil gun: single-stage and multistage. A single-stage coil gun uses one
    electromagnet to propel a projectile. A multistage coil gun uses several electromagnets in succession to
    progressively increase the speed of the projectile.

    Fig 2: Circuit diagram of single stage coil gun


    A single stage, sensorless coil gun was designed to demonstrate the capability to accelerate a ferromagnetic
    projectile to high velocity .Fig 2 shows the circuit diagram of single stage coil gun. The goal was to build a
    single stage coil gun that is lightweight, has good performance and uses commonly available parts for a
    reasonable price. It can be used for normal velocity requirement.
    A multi stage system is a way to raise the effectiveness of the coil gun. It accelerates the projectile by
    controlling the relations between each stage of the solenoid and projectile. Since a multi stage system controls
    the time needed to apply electric current to the coil depending on the position of the projectile, the switching
    time is extremely important.

    Fig 3.1: Circuit diagram of multistage coil gun Fig 3.2: Demonstration of multistage coil gun

    2. Construction of coil gun


    The launching process can be divided into three phases. In the first phase the energy needed for acceleration is
    stored in the capacitor [3] C using laboratory alternating current source U (switch position 1). In the following
    phase, the energy must be transmitted to the projectile in the shortest time possible and the current should be one
    way. The diode working as a contactless switcher can be used for this purpose (switch position 2). This will
    provide a high-energy coil current peak creating a strong electromagnetic field. This field pulls the projectile
    inside the barrel with high acceleration.

    Fig 4: The process of final construction.


    For the successful projectile launch the precise timing is necessary [6]. The current pulse must be switched off
    before the projectile passes the half of the coil length to prevent the projectile from becoming arrested at the
    centre of the electromagnet. In the final, third stage, the projectile leaves the coil and flies on its own
    momentum. The construction of coil gun is shown in the figure 4.
    2.1 Projectile
    The effectiveness of the coil gun highly depends on the type of projectile that is choosen to be fired. The
    materials, dimensions and shape of the projectile are critical to the efficiency of coils. In these the type of
    material is the most important thing when choosing the projectile. In our work we are using a ferromagnetic
    projectile.The Projectile is a Ferro-magnetic material which becomes magnetized due to the induced current. A
    Ferro-magnetic materials are characterized to substances with an abnormally high magnetic permeability, a
    definite saturation point, and appreciable residual magnetism and hysteresis (such as iron-cobalt-nickel and
    alloys containing these metals).
    2.2 Capacitor
    Capacitor is the most important part of the coil-gun. Without Capacitor we cannot make the projectile fire
    because it is the capacitor which holds the charge and discharges it that makes it possible to produce the
    appropriate field at the right timings.The energy that is stored in this field does not simply disappear from the
    magnetic circuit once the capacitor finishes discharging, instead returning to the coil gun's electric circuit.
    Because the coil gun's electric circuit is inherently analogous to an LC oscillator, the unused energy returns in
    the reverse direction ('ringing'), which can seriously damage polarized capacitors such as electrolytic capacitors.
    Reverse charging can be prevented by a diode connected in reverse-parallel across the capacitor terminals; as a
    result, the current keeps flowing until the diode and the coil's resistance dissipates the field energy as heat.
    2.3 Inductor/solenoid/barrel
    It is the main factor here in this setup that produces magnetic field and hence is responsible for the firing of
    projectile from the coil. Inductor is nothing but the copper coil that have several turns to produce strong
    magnetic field to force the projectile. It holds energy in the form of magnetic field.
    2.4 Resistor
    Resistance actually manages the coil current which neither tends to make it for too short nor for too long.
    Though the resistance should be low so that the coil absorbs most of the coil energy.

    3. Working of coil gun


    A coil gun is an apparatus fires a projectile by producing a magnetic field, thus inducing a magnetic force. When
    current is run through a wire, a magnetic field is produced. When this wire is looped the field intensifies through
    the centre of the loop. The magnetic field is related to the current through the loop as well as the number of
    loops. Therefore, increasing the current through the wire and adding more loops to the coil will increase the
    force of a coil gun. When a ferromagnetic projectile comes in contact with the magnetic field, it will be pulled
    towards the centre of coil, accelerating it once it reach the centre of the coil the current must be turned off
    otherwise the projectile will oscillate in a critically damped fashion. This means that instead of forcing the
    projectile in one end of the coil and shooting it out of the other end, it will be held inside the coil at the centre
    point. Fig 5 shows the working of coil gun.
    Fig 5: working of coil gun

    4. Conclusion
    This paper clearly shows the outline of the coil gun system. The concept of the coil gun removes the gaps which
    comes in the rail gun system and overcome from the economic problem which comes in the space research area
    using the fuel in the system. The working of the coil gun shows the effectiveness of the electromagnetic field in
    many research applications which require high velocity.
    A high capacitor is needed for charging the energy. This capacitor must be implemented by special sandwich
    board (capacitors connected in parallel) because of the proper discharging current distribution.

    References
    [1] Z. Zabar, Y. Naot , L. Birenbaum, E. Levi and P.N. Joshi: Design and power conditioning for the coil gun. In
    IEEE Transaction on Magnetics, vol. 25, no. 1, January 1989
    [2] Keshtkar, A., Gharib, L., Abbasi, M.: Comparison between conventional railgun and two-turn railgun by 3D-
    FEM. In: 2012 16th International Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch Technology (EML), May 15-19, pp.
    1–5 (2012)
    [3] Guo, L., Guo, N., Wang, S., Qiu, J., Zhu, J.G., Guo, Y., Wang, Y.: Optimization for capacitor-driven coilgun
    based on equivalent circuit model and genetic algorithm. In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition,
    ECCE 2009, September 20-24, pp. 234–239. IEEE (2009)
    [4] Yamori, A., Ono, Y., Sasaki, S.: Development of a plasma armature railgun with two
    distributed power supplies. In: 2004 12th Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch
    Technology, May 25-28, pp. 149–154 (2005)
    [5] Kaye, R.J.: Operational requirements and issues for coilgun electromagnetic launchers. IEEE Transactions
    on Magnetics 41(1), 194–199 (2005)
    [6] Bengui, Z., Yanjie, C., Jie, W., Huijin, W., Xuehui, C.: Magnetic-Structural Coupling Analysis of Armature
    in Induction Coilgun. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science 39(1), 65–70 (2011)

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