1. Presentation by: Brad Garrison
Portable Mass Driver
Presentation by:
Brad Garrison

2. Overview: Mass Drivers
Classification of devices that use electromagnetic forces to propel an object
More efficient than existing means of propulsion.

3. A Brief “History” of Mass Drivers
Current Development:
Navy/Army Research
Amateur Research

4. Future Possibilities Peaceful Uses Military Uses
Ground Based Mass Drivers
Orbital Mass Drivers
Spacecraft Based Mass Drivers
Rail Guns
Electro Thermal Chemical Guns

5. Types of Mass Drivers
Rail
Coil
Gauss
Disk

6. Project Motivations Interest in electromagnetism
Little research being conducted
Current designs are repetitive

7. 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

8. Possible Designs
Coil Gun
Rail Gun

9. Rail Gun Limitations High “recoil” force Extremely high temperatures
Armature vaporization
Expensive materials
More applicable to larger designs

10. Coil Gun Lower operating temperatures than Rail Gun
No projectile vaporization
Lower, more manageable “recoil” forces

11. 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

12. 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

13. Initial Design

14. 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

15. 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

16. Second Design

17. Charge Booster
(example is using a bank of V 0.25Amp AA batteries)

18. Charge indicator
The indicator will signal when the capacitor is fully charged

19. Parallel Charging

20. Resonance Charging
Resonance charging will be used to conserve energy and to decrease the charging time

21. Possible Problems Fragility of permanent magnets
Resistive heating of the coil
Over working the capacitors
Battery life

22. Future Improvements
Optimized coil
Heat sinks
Improved indicators

23. Conclusion Coil guns are not practical for portable designs.
Superconductors
Specialized Capacitors/Semiconductors
New coil designs
Advanced batteries

24. References 1. anothercoilgunsite.com 2. coilgun.com 3. powerlabs.com
4.mgc314.home.comcast.net
5. scitoys.com

25. Questions?