D.

C GUN:

INTRODUCTION:

In 1918, French inventor Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee

invented an electric cannon which bears a strong resemblance to the

linear motor. He filed for a US patent on 1 April 1919, which was

issued in July 1922 as patent no. 1,421,435 "Electric Apparatus for

Propelling Projectiles". In his device, two parallel busbars are

connected by the wings of a projectile, and the whole apparatus

surrounded by a magnetic field. By passing current through busbars

and projectile, a force is induced which propels the projectile along

the bus-bars and into flight.

During World War II the idea was revived by Joachim Hänsler of

Germany's Ordnance Office, and an electric anti-aircraft gun was

proposed. By late 1944 enough theory had been worked out to allow

the Luftwaffe's Flak Command to issue a specification, which

demanded a muzzle velocity of 2,000 m/s (6,600 ft/s) and a projectile

containing 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) of explosive. The guns were to be mounted

in batteries of six firing twelve rounds per minute, and it was to fit

existing 12.8 cm FlaK 40 mounts. It was never built. When details

were discovered after the war it aroused much interest and a more

detailed study was carried out, culminating in a 1947 report which

concluded that it was theoretically feasible, but that each gun would

need enough power to illuminate half of Chicago

CONSTRUCTION:

A railgun consists of two parallel metal rails (hence the name)

connected to an electrical power supply. When a conductive projectile

is inserted between the rails (from the end connected to the power

supply), it completes the circuit. Electrons flow from the negative

terminal of the power supply up the negative rail, across the

projectile, and down the positive rail, back to the power supply.

This current makes the railgun behave similar to an electromagnet,

creating a powerful magnetic field in the region of the rails up to the

position of the projectile. In accordance with the right-hand rule, the

magnetic field circulates around each conductor. Since the current is

in opposite direction along each rail, the net magnetic field between
the rails (B) is directed vertically. In combination with the current (I)

across the projectile, this produces a Lorentz force which accelerates

the projectile along the rails. There are also forces acting on the rails

attempting to push them apart, but since the rails are firmly mounted,

they cannot move. The projectile slides up the rails away from the

end with the power supply.

A very large power supply providing, on the order of, one million

amperes of current will create a tremendous force on the projectile,

accelerating it to a speed of many kilometres per second (km/s). 20

km/s has been achieved with small projectiles explosively injected

into the railgun. Although these speeds are theoretically possible, the

heat generated from the propulsion of the object is enough to rapidly

erode the rails. Such a railgun would require frequent replacement of

the rails, or use a heat resistant material that would be conductive

enough to produce the same effect.

CONSIDERATIONS IN RAILGUN DESIGN

Materials

The rails and projectiles must be built from strong conductive

materials; the rails need to survive the violence of an accelerating

projectile, and heating due to the large currents and friction involved.

The recoil force exerted on the rails is equal and opposite to the force

propelling the projectile. The seat of the recoil force is still debated.

The traditional equations predict that the recoil force acts on the

breech of the railgun. Another school of thought invokes Ampère's

force law and asserts that it acts along the length of the rails (which is

their strongest axis). The rails also repel themselves via a sideways

force caused by the rails being pushed by the magnetic field, just as

the projectile is. The rails need to survive this without bending, and

must be very securely mounted.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

The power supply must be able to deliver large currents, sustained

and controlled over a useful amount of time. The most important

gauge of power supply effectiveness is the energy it can deliver. As of

February 2008, the largest known energy used to propel a projectile

from a railgun was 32 million joules.. The most common forms of

power supplies used in railguns are capacitors and compulsators.

The rails need to withstand enormous repulsive forces during firing,

and these forces will tend to push them apart and away from the

projectile. As rail/projectile clearances increase, arcing develops,

which causes rapid vaporization and extensive damage to the rail

surfaces and the insulator surfaces. This limited some early research

railguns to one shot per service interval.

The inductance and resistance of the rails and power supply limit the

efficiency of a railgun design. Currently different rail shapes and

railgun configurations are being tested, most notably by the United

States Navy, The Institute for Advanced Technology, and BAE

Systems.

Heat dissipation

Massive amounts of heat are created by the electricity flowing

through the rails, as well as the friction of the projectile leaving the

device. The heat created by this friction itself can cause thermal
expansion of the rails and projectile, further increasing the frictional

heat. This leads to three main problems: melting of equipment, safety

of personnel, and detection by enemy forces. As briefly discussed

above, the stresses involved in firing this sort of device require an

extremely heat-resistant material. Otherwise the rails, barrel, and all

equipment attached would melt or be irreparably damaged.

In practice the rails are, with most designs of railgun, subject to

erosion due to each launch; and projectiles can be subject to some

degree of ablation also, and this can limit railgun life, in some cases

severely.

MATHEMATICAL FORMULA

In relation to railgun physics, the magnitude of the force vector can be

determined from a form of the Biot-Savart Law and a result of the

Lorentz force. It can be expressed mathematically in terms of the

permeability constant (μ0), the radius of the rails (which are assumed

to be circular in cross section)(r), the distance between the

counterpoints of the rails(d) and the current in amps through the

system (I) as follows

The formula is based on the assumption that the distance(l) between

the point where the force (F) is measured and the beginning of the

rails is greater than the separation of the rails (d) by a factor of about

3 or 4 (l > 3d). Some other simplifying assumptions have also been

made; to describe the force more accurately, the geometry of the rails

and the projectile must be taken into consideration.

RAIL GUN:

Railguns are being pursued as weapons with projectiles that do not

contain explosives, but are given extremely high velocities: 3500 m/s

(11,500 ft/s, approximately Mach 10 at sea level) or more (for

comparison, the M16 rifle has a muzzle speed of 930 m/s, or

3,000 ft/s), which would make their kinetic energy equal or superior to

the energy yield of an explosive-filled shell of greater mass. This

would allow more ammunition to be carried and eliminate the hazards

of carrying explosives in a tank or naval weapons platform. Also, by

firing at higher velocities railguns have greater range, less bullet drop

and less wind drift, bypassing the inherent cost and physical

limitations of conventional firearms - "the limits of gas expansion

prohibit launching an unassisted projectile to velocities greater than

about 1.5 km/s and ranges of more than 50 miles [80 km] from a

practical conventional gun system."

If it were possible to apply the technology as a rapid-fire automatic

weapon, a railgun would have further advantages in increased rate of

fire. The feed mechanisms of a conventional firearm must move to

accommodate the propellant charge as well as the ammunition round,

while a railgun would only need to accommodate the projectile.

Furthermore, a railgun would not have to extract a spent cartridge

case from the breech, meaning that a fresh round could be cycled

almost immediately after the previous round has been shot.

Resistance

Electrical resistance is a major limitation because when dumping

large amounts of electrical energy into a conductor the majority of the

energy is converted to heat due to resistance and therefore

effectively lost as it is not driving the projectile. This could be

overcome through the use of a superconducting material.

Energy dissipation

The coils have an electrical resistance, and resistive losses are often

very significant indeed.

The energy in the magnetic field itself does not simply dissipate;

much of it returns to the capacitor when the electric current is

decreasing. Unfortunately it does this in the reverse direction (via a

'ringing' mechanism due to inductance of the coils), which can

seriously damage polarized capacitors (such as electrolytics).

In the circuit the magnetic field keeps the current in the coil flowing

after the capacitor has discharged, so that it keeps discharging and

builds up a negative voltage (see Lenz's law). This is similar to an LC

oscillator.

The capacitor charging to a negative voltage can be prevented by

placing a diode across the capacitor terminals.

Some designs bypass this limitation by using couple of diodes. Then,

diodes reverse polarity to charge capacitors instead with proper

polarity again, effectively re-using remaining coil energy.

A coilgun is a type of synchronous linear electric motor which is used

as a projectile accelerator that consists of one or more

electromagnetic coils. These are used to accelerate a magnetic

projectile to high velocity. The name Gauss gun is sometimes used

for such devices in reference to Carl Friedrich Gauss, who formulated

mathematical descriptions of the electromagnetic effect used by

magnetic accelerators.

Coilguns consist of one or more coils arranged along the barrel that

are switched in sequence so as to ensure that the projectile is

accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. Coilguns are

distinct from railguns, which pass a large current through the

projectile or sabot via sliding contacts. Coilguns and railguns also

operate on different principles.

ELCTRO MAGNATIC GUN DETAILS:

While playing with my can crusher, I noticed that a can placed off

center tended to be pushed out of the solenoid. A little searching of

the patent literature convinced me that I had inadvertently created a

very poor, single stage, coil gun. Presented below is a summary of

what I have found so far.

Propellant powered guns are typically limited to muzzle velocities on

the order of 2,000 meters per second. This limit is inherent to the use

of expanding gas to drive the projectile down a barrel. Barrels simply

can't withstand the temperatures and pressures required for higher

expansion rates of the propellant combustion products (normally CO2

and NOx). One attempt at a gun for higher velocities used differential

pistons (a large one, driven by methane/oxygen combustion,

connected to a small one for compression of the drive gas) to provide

a high pressure of hydrogen gas (hydrogen is the lightest, and hence

fastest expanding, of all gasses). While some success was achieved,

the apparatus was cumbersome and the velocities were still limited.

For some applications, particularly orbital launching, this is insufficient

(earth escape velocity is 11,200 m/s).

Two basic types of electromagnetic gun are described in the patent

literature, the rail gun and the coil gun. Both use stored energy

sources to produce a large magnetic field and a high electric current

through a driving armature. The interaction of the current with the

magnetic field generates a force which propels the armature (and any

projectile connected to it). Beyond that, they differ substantially, and

each has practical difficulties which has prevented them from being

more than laboratory curiosities.

ELECTROMAGNATIC GUN:
The rail gun is extremely simple in concept. A conductive

armature is located between two electrically conductive rails

which are held rigidly parallel to one another by insulators.

Connecting the rails to a source of stored electrical energy

(either a capacitor or a homopolar generator) causes a current

to flow down one rail, through the armature, and back to the

source via the other rail. The current in the rails generates a

magnetic field perpendicular to the rails. The current flowing

through the armature, within this magnetic field, generates a

force which propels the armature down the rails.

The coil gun operates as a linear induction motor. A series of

solenoid coils are sequentially connected to sources of stored

electrical energy (capacitors) generating a magnetic field which

travels down the bore of the gun. The rapidly changing

magnetic field induces a current in a ring shaped armature,

opposite in direction to the current in the solenoids. The

induced current in the armature, within the magnetic field of the

solenoids, generates a force which propels the armature down

the barrel.

The main problem with rail guns is the sliding electrical contact

between the rails and the armature. If the armature is a solid

metal conductor, the high currents involved are often sufficient

to weld it to the rails. One solution to this is to use a very thin

aluminum armature which vaporizes to form a plasma armature

as soon as current is applied. However, the plasma tends to

severely erode the rails. A second problem which can occur is

arcing between the rails, which prevents the applied energy

from being converted to motion.

In order for a coil gun to function at reasonable efficiency, the

solenoids must be energized just as the armature exits the

solenoid. Various timing and detection circuits have been

described, relying on optical or inductive sensing of the

armature position and fast semiconductor switches. These all

become prohibitively expensive at the current levels needed to

accelerate a useful payload.