Electromagnetic Accelerators

Sean P. McDevitt and Devon J. Dallmann

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO 80309

Abstract— Design and construct an electromagnetic accel-
erator (railgun).
I. I NTRODUCTION
Railguns are part of a class of so called ”electromag-
netic” weapons. These weapons range from an electromag-
netic pulse (EMP) to a Gauss gun. The main principle of
these weapons is to use purely electromagnetic forces and
energy to do their designed tasks. All of these weapons are
currently of great interest to militaries around the world.
with the lowest point exactly midway between the wires.
By assuming the magnetic field to be constant along the
entire length of the projectile and equal to the magnitude
of the actual field’s lowest point, the calculations are far
simpler. In addition, the assumptions help reduce error as
we are not accounting for losses due to arcing and other
such losses. With these assumptions, the equation then
simplifies to:
µ0 V0 e RC
−t

The prospect of having a highly destructive weapon with B∼

little to no moving parts is extremely attractive. In fact, the
United States Navy is intending to implement a modified
railgun on the newly designed destroyer (DDX).
II. D ERIVATION
The mathematics behind railguns are quite simple. How-
ever, to accurately model the behavior of the gun and
projectile, a wide range of physics must be employed.
The gun itself require electromagnetic theory, while the
trajectory of the bullet requires
A. Behavior of a Railgun
First model the system as a simple circuit. From this
we arrive at an expression for the current where: R is
resistance, C is the capacitance, and V0 is the initial
voltage of the system.
V0 −t
I(t) = e RC (1)
R F
Next we have to calculate the magnetic field caused by
= (3)
Rπ(a + 2l )
From here we calculate the force on the projectile.
Because the B-field is assumed to be constant along the
length of the projectile we can do this by using (4). Next,
the cross product can be changed to its magnitude and
angle form to remove the vectors (5). If we assume the
B-field in the projectile is perpendicular to the current’s
direction at all points, sin(α) becomes 1. This assumption
holds as across the plain of symmetry between the two
wires the B-fields from both wires points down, exactly
perpendicular to the plain. In addition, dl across the
projectile is just a straight line, which turns the integral
of Idl into just Il. Then the previous values for I(t) and
B are substituted into the equation, which then gives (8).
dF = I(t)d~l × B
~ (4)
Z
= I(t)B sin(α)dl (5)
l

the current through the circuit. This can be modeled by two ⇒ I(t)Bl (6)
wires running parallel to each other, with current flowing V0 Bl −t
⇒ e RC (7)
up one wire, then across the projectile, and back down the R
other wire. Therefore on the line of symmetry between V02 µ0 l
(8)
−2t
⇒ e RC
the wires the magnetic field follows the equation below. R2 π(a + 2l )
Where l is the length between the rails, a is the radius of
Then Newton’s Law can be applied, where m is the
the rail, and r is the distance from the center of the right
mass of the projectile, to find the acceleration.
rail (r is assumed to be larger than a).
µ0 I(t) µ0 I(t)
B= + (2) F = ma (9)
2πr 2π + l + 2a − r
V02 µ0 l
(10)
−2t
It would be quite difficult to calculate the force on the a = 2 l
e RC
mR π(a + 2 )
projectile due to this non-constant magnetic field. Luckily
the magnetic field has a bowl shape, dipping in the middle With this equation we can easily find velocity and
position information when needed.
B. Flight Path of the Projectile
To determine if the railgun is actually accelerating the
projectile, an equation is needed to model the trajectory.
This equation can then be used to find the exit velocity
in the actual experiment and compare it with the analytic
expectations. The following equation is derived through
simple Newtonian mechanics.
y = x tan(θ0 ) −
g
x2 (11)
2v02 cos2 (θ0 )
This equation ignores both air resistance and the cur-
vature of the Earth. The velocities that the railgun will
produce are not fast enough for air resistance to be a true
factor. In addition, the experimentally witnessed distance
are not long enough for the curvature of the Earth to be
considered.
III. D ESIGN
There are three principle parts to the railgun: the capaci-
tor bank, the charging circuit, and the rails themselves. The
capacitor bank is simple enough. There are eight capacitors
linked in parallel. The next part is the charging circuit. This
adapted 120 V AC to anywhere from 0 to 680 V DC. The
circuit is shown below (without the variac).
Figure 1: Charging circuit schematic
The last component is the rails. This, too, is rather
simple. Below is an equivalent circuit to model the rails.
Figure 1: Equivalent circuit for the rails
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
Before the capacitor bank was charged, the railgun was
”fired” with just compressed air as a benchmark. The
distance achieved was approximately thirty feet. When the
capacitor bank was charged, the railgun was fired, and the
projectile was shot for approximately fifty-five feet. This
almost double the benchmark. The question remains: what
was the exit velocity? Using the previously derived model
(Section II. B.) with an angle of ten degrees and the given
distances, the exit velocity with just compressed air was
approximately 30 m s . With the capacitors actually charged,
the approximate exit velocity was 40 m s , therefore the rails
added approximately 10 m s .
Compared to our model, these results are quite im-
pressive. Evaluating our model with the following values:
R = .01Ω, C = .0144F , V0 = 450V , l = .01m,
m = .005kg, and a = .005m, we find that the added
velocity would be approximately 11.6 m s . As one can see,
the actual results and the analytical results are surprisingly
close.
V. C ONCLUSION
From this we can conclude that a first order approxi-
mation is a fairly accurate way to model a low power rail
gun. We can also see that railguns are quite inefficient as
can be seen from:
1
We = CV 2 (12)
2
There is 1.5KJ of energy in the capacitors, which only adds
11.6 meters per second to a 5 gram projectile. If it were
100 percent efficient we would have gotten a velocity of
775 meters per second. Obviously the efficiency is quite
pathetic. This is why rail guns are only used in large scale
applications.
R EFERENCES
[1] Branko D. Popovic, and Zoya Popovic, Introductory Electromagnet-
ics, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000.
[2] Richard Wolfson, and Jay M. Pasachoff, Physics: For Scientists and
Engineers, Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1999.