Coilgun
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A coilgun is a type of projectile accelerator that uses one or more electromagnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile to high velocity. Coilguns accelerate the projectile using contactless means. 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. Because coilguns have no sliding contact, no wear or erosion occurs to the barrel, and the working life of a coilgun is potentially infinite. In this way, coilguns are distinct from railguns, which pass a large current through the projectile or sabot via sliding contacts.
Coilguns are a popular device in science fiction, especially science fiction role playing and video games, where they go under such names as Gauss cannon, Gauss rifle, or Magnetic Accelerator Cannon.
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[edit] Construction
A coilgun, as the name implies, consists of a coil of wire - an electromagnet - with a ferromagnetic projectile placed at one of its ends. Effectively a coilgun is a solenoid: an electromagnetic coil with the function of drawing a ferromagnetic object through its center. A large current is pulsed through the coil of wire and a strong magnetic field forms, pulling the projectile to the center of the coil. When the projectile nears this point the electromagnet is switched off and the next electromagnet can be switched on, progressively accelerating the projectile down successive stages. In common coilgun designs the "barrel" of the gun is made up of a track that the projectile rides on, with the driver electromagnetic coils around the track. Power is supplied to the electromagnet from some sort of fast discharge storage device, typically a battery or high-capacity high voltage capacitors designed for fast energy discharge. A rectifier is used to protect polarity sensitive capacitors (such as electrolytics) from damage due to inverse polarity of the current after the discharge.
There are two main types or setups of a coilgun, single stage and multistage. A single stage coilgun uses just one electromagnet to propel a ferromagnetic projectile. A multistage coilgun uses multiple electromagnets in succession to progressively increase the speed of the projectile.
Many hobbyists use low-cost rudimentary designs to experiment with coilguns, for example using photoflash capacitors from a disposable camera, or a capacitor from a standard cathode-ray tube television as the energy source, and a low inductance coil to propel the projectile forward.
A superconductor coilgun called a quench gun could be created by successively quenching a line of adjacent coaxial superconducting electromagnetic coils forming a gun barrel, generating a wave of magnetic field gradient traveling at any desired speed. A traveling superconducting coil might be made to ride this wave like a surfboard. The device would be a mass driver or linear synchronous motor with the propulsion energy stored directly in the drive coils.[citation needed]
[edit] Switching
One main obstacle in coilgun design is switching the power through the coils. There are several main options—the most simple (and probably the least effective) is the spark gap, which releases the stored energy through the coil when the voltage reaches a certain threshold. A better option is to use solid-state switches; these include IGBTs (which can be switched off mid-pulse) and SCRs (which release all stored energy before turning off).[1] A quick-and-dirty method for switching, especially for those using a flash camera as the main components, is to use the flash tube itself as a switch. By wiring it in series with the coil, it can silently and non-destructively (though there will be a flash of light) allow a large amount of current to pass through to the coil. Like any flash tube, ionizing the gas in the tube with a high voltage triggers it.
[edit] Potential uses
Like railguns and ram accelerators, coilguns have been proposed for use in delivering payloads to space.
A coilgun has no moving parts other than the projectile, the only noise produced is by the projectile moving and the theoretic maximum speed of the projectile is extremely high. These attributes make it attractive as a weapon.
[edit] Limitations
Despite heavy research and development by the amateur and professional community, great obstacles have yet to be overcome.
[edit] Projectile saturation
One of the greatest limitations to the coil gun is the rate at which the ferromagnetic projectile becomes fully saturated by the magnetic field and the rate at which it loses its magnetic saturation. Once a ferromagnetic object becomes completely saturated the amount of force in which it can be attracted stops increasing. The rate at which the projectile loses its saturation is critical; as this rate is constant, greater distances between drive electromagnets are needed to compensate for this rate. As the projectile increases in speed it reaches drive electromagnets at progressively faster rates. Without compensation for desaturation time, there will be less and less effect to the velocity of the projectile, resulting in significantly lower efficiency per drive electromagnet stage as the projectile travels down the line. Once the amount of force exerted to the projectile is less than or equal to the amount of resistance exerted on the projectile due to air friction and friction in the barrel the projectile will no longer gain velocity.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Energy dissipation
The energy in the magnetic field does not dissipate; much of it returns to the capacitor when the electromagnetic field is removed and the electric current is decreasing. Unfortunately it does this in the reverse direction (via a 'ringing' mechanism), 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.
[edit] Coilguns in fiction
The coil gun first appeared in literature as the "electric gun" in the 1897 science fiction novel A Trip to Venus by John Munro (published by Jarrold & Sons, London). The novel described in detail a way to launch vehicles into outer space from the Earth's surface. In the novel, Munro describes in great detail multiple coils fired in sequence by solenoids timed to achieve acceleration without generating g forces that would harm passengers. The gun could be angled on a hillside if desired.
The earliest role-playing game appearance was in Traveller book 4, Mercenary, in the form of the vehicle-mounted VRF (very rapid fire) Gauss Gun and the more advanced small arms Gauss Rifle.[2]
In video games, the Half Life series shown in the first chapter the Gauss Gun as a handheld firearm and in the second chapter it can be seen as the weapon mounted on the rebels' buggy (this time with unlimited ammo). Coil guns called Gauss Cannons are mounted on to the iconic Warthogs of the Halo series. Their first appearance in the series was courtesy of Halo 2.
FOX HUNT (Hachette, 2006), the first thriller in the Lachlan Fox series of Australian novelist James Clancy Phelan, featured a space-based coilgun. This weapon, "The Dragon" was launched into space in the 1980's as part of the USSR's missile-defense, and uses a rare element found at Tungusta as a small but extremely potent projectile capable of destroying small towns. The controls for the weapon were housed in Chechnya and later at a mobile site. It took 24 hours for The Dragon to fire, re-charge and reload, before being able to be fired again.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Room 203 Technology. Coil Gun. Retrieved on October 20, 2007.
- ^ Chadwick, Frank (1978). Mercenary: Traveller Volume 4. Normal Illinois: Game Designers' Workshop, 36-37, 39, 52.
[edit] External links
- Coilgun at the Open Directory Project
