Presentation by: Brad Garrison 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 Military Uses Ground Based Mass Drivers Orbital Mass Drivers Spacecraft Based Mass Drivers Rail Guns Electro Thermal Chemical Guns

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 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

Drawbacks of Existing Designs 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 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 coil Heat 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?