Railgun Physics

The underlying physics involved in the railgun are rather simple. Current
flowing through an inductor creates a magnetic field. The current
flowing
through the field creates a Lorentz force on the inductor tending
to push
the coil apart. If one portion of the coil is free to move, this
portion will
slide away from the power source.

Qualitatively, its a relatively straightforward process. Difficulty arrises in

trying to quantitatively determine the time dynamics of the electric and
magnetic fields present, and an analytical description of the motion of
the slug. To do so, we must examine the relationship between the
current in the loop, the induced magnetic field, the motion of the slug,
and the geometry of the loop - all as functions of time.

We will break down the complex problem of determining the analytical

equations of motion
for the slug in the following way:

1. Determine the instantaneous induced magnetic field at any point as

a function of loop geometry and current in the loop at a given time.

2. Take Faraday's Law and derive the equation for the induced EMF in
the loop.
Calculate this based on the magnetic field, determined
above.

3. Solve Ohm's Law for an analytical formulation of current as a

function of loop resistance,
initial charge in the capacitor(s),
capacitance of the power cap(s), and induced EMF.
Take the
derivative of this equation to get an equation for I'(t) with no
integrals
in it.

4. Now we need to replace I(t) and I'(t) in the above equation with
something we know how to
calculate. To do this, we'll first
manipulate the Lorentz Force law like this:

1. Determine the instantaneous magnetic field at any point on the

slug as a function of loop geometry and current in the loop at a
given time.

2. Integrate the magnetic field over the length of the slug and
multiply by the instantaneous
current to reveal the magnitude
of the Lorentz Force at a given time.

3. Set the Lorentz Force magnitude equal to mL"  (F=ma).

Solve
this equation for I(t) and take its time derivative.

5. Now we have have two equations for I'(t) which we can set equal to
each other, leaving
a differential equation for L(t). Solve this
differential equation to reveal the time evolution of L(t) [position of
slug on rails], L'(t) [velocity of slug], L''(t) [acceleration
of slug],
etc.

1) Magnetic field in the current loop

Assuming we know the shape of our current loop and the magnitude of
the
current at a given instant, the instantaneous magnetic field caused
by the
current in the loop is given by the Biot-Savart law (Griffiths 5.28):

Where r is the vector from the source (dl) to the point at

which we are
evaluating the field. We can expect the displacement current
term of
Ampere's law,

to affect our magnetic field, because we expect to see an electric field

that changes with time. However, its contribution is scaled by the
permittivity of free space, a factor ~10-11. This means that in
order for
the displacement current to noticably affect the magnetic field,
the
change in electric field would have to be on the order of
1011 V/m s.

This would entail a change in voltage in the circuit of Px1011

V/s where P
is the perimeter of the current loop. In the highly unrealistic
case of a
10kV power source (much higher than we're likely to use), a loop
perimeter of 0.1m (tiny) and a firing relay that switches in 1 milliseconds
(unreasonably fast!!), the displacement current is then on the order of 1
Amp, but we are expecting power supply currents possibly as high as
~10000
Amps initially, making the displacement current contribution to
B
inconsequential.

Therefore, to get a value for B(t), we break the Biot-Savart

integral up
into four parts - the two rails, the slug, and the connection
opposite the
slug which we will approximate as a fixed armature across the
rails. In
reality, this connection will consist of the power source, the
firing relay,
and the connecting wires. Our assumption is that the field
contribution of
this portion of the circuit can, in fact, be manipulated to
be very similar
to a direct connection across the rails.
The direction of the magnetic field vector depends on which direction the
current flows through the loop. For convenience, we'll assume that the
current moves counter-clockwise. By the right-hand rule, the magnetic
field is in the positive z direction, "up".

The magnetic field at some point, P, induced by current flowing through a

straight wire can be derived analytically. A succinct example of this
derivation is given in Griffiths, chapter 5, example 5. The following
figure
is taken from this example.

The end result is that

B = (mu0I/4z*pi) * [sin(theta2) - sin(theta1)]

where z is the shortest distance from P to the wire, theta1 and theta2
are
the initial and final angles between z and r. We will
approximate the
railgun as four straight wire field contributions summed
together.

For the first rail:

z = y
sin(theta1) = -(L - x) / sqrt((L - x)2 + y2)

sin(theta2) = x / sqrt(x2 + y2)

For the second rail:

z = (W - y)

sin(theta1) = x / sqrt(x2 + (W - y)2)

sin(theta2) = -(L - x) / sqrt((L - x)2 + (W - y)2)

For the slug:

z = (L - x)

sin(theta1) = (W - y) / sqrt((W - y)2 + (L - x)2)

sin(theta2) = y / sqrt(y2 + (L - x)2)

For the "back" connection:

z = x
sin(theta1) = -y / sqrt(x2 + y2)

sin(theta2) = (W - y) / sqrt(x2 + (W - y)2)

where L is the length of the rail to the slug, W is the rail separation,
while x and y are the coordinates of the point inside the loop for which
we
are calculating the field. Plugging these four sets of values into the
equation above and summing the results leads to the following analytical
solution for the magnetic field at some point inside the loop:

Oops, screwed that equation graphic up bad. It's all wrong, but the
general form is right. it's B(I,x,y,L,W)|slug = (mu_oI/4pi)[f(L,W,x,y)]

2) Inductive EMF in Current Loop

Faraday's law tells us that when we have a changing magnetic field, we

have
an induced electric field.

We take Faraday's law and act upon it with the curl theorem of vector
calculus,

to achieve the following relation for the induced EMF, epsilon:

Again, this has been done analytically with Mathematica. [NOTE:

Our
initial railgun derivation used a slightly different form for epsilon,
Griffiths 7.13. This is basically the same equation except the time
derivative is pulled outside the integral because the magnetic field is
assumed to be constant in time. This is obviously not the case for the
railgun, and therefore the original derivation was incorrect.]

3) Ohm's Law
The induced EMF, calculated in section 3 above, opposes the power
source
voltage and therefore decreases the circuit current via Ohm's
Law:

V(t) = I(t)R = V(t)power supply - epsilon(t)

Where R is the circuit resistance. We'll assume that the resistance is

constant with time, and we'll hope that it is very small. For this
derevation, we will also assume that the power supply is a capacitor. This
leads to the canonical form for I(t):

I(t) = (1/R)[Vcap - epsilon(t)]

The capacitance of a capacitor is given by

C = q(t)/V(t)

where q is the amount of charge on the capacitor and V is the voltage

across the capacitor. The charge at any time is given by

q(t) = q(0) - integral[I(t)dt]

Now we can write the current like this:

I(t) = (1/R)[(q0 - integral[I(t)dt])/C - epsilon(t)]

Now we can take the derivative of this equation with respect to t to

get a
differential equation of I.

I'(t) = (1/R)(de/dI) - I(t)/RC

Some thought needs to be given to bounday conditions here, since the

factor
of q0/RC has disappeared.

4) The Lorentz Force

The current in the loop flowing through magnetic field calculated in part
1
generates a Lorentz force outwards on the loop. The Lorentz force on
the
slug can be calculated analytically (Griffiths 5.17):

Fmag(I,L,W) = I(t) *
integral[dy
x Bslug(I,y,L,W)]

The magnetic field in this equation is given the subscript 'slug' because
we are only interested in the field at the slug. This is the only part of
the
field that contributes to the Lorentz force on the projectile itself.

To calculate this magnetic field, we'll use the same technique and
assumptions used in part 1. However, we can simplify the analysis here a
bit since we'll always be at x=L. Also, the contribution to the field from
the slug itself can be ignored.

Intuitively, if the slug were just a piece of straight wire, no amount of

current through that wire would cause it to move anywhere in the
absence of
external fields. In the actual system, where the slug is under
the
influence of large magnetic fields, it can still be shown that the slug
current won't move the slug. It's a simple matter of momentum
conservation. If the slug moves itself, then momentum has been created
from nothing.

Since the magnetic field is uniformly vertical and the slug lies
horizontally on the rails, it is clear that the direction of the force
will be
horizontal and perpendicular to the slug, i.e. in the x
direction. The cross
product coveniently drops out, and all vectors
becomes scalars with the
exception of an x-hat at the end.

Fmag(I,L,W) =
(mu0L(t)I(t)2/pi) * (W2+L(t)2-L(t)*sqrt(W2+L(t)2))
/
sqrt(W2+L(t)2)

This is also equal to the mass of the slug times the acceleration of the
slug (Newton's 2nd law of motion, F=ma). The acceleration of the slug
can
be written as the second time derivative of L, leading to this
equation:

m * L''(t) =
(mu0L(t)I(t)2/pi) * (W2+L(t)2-L(t)*sqrt(W2+L(t)2))
/
sqrt(W2+L(t)2)

This equation can be solved for the current:

I(t) = sqrt[pi * m * L''(t) * sqrt(W2+L(t)2) /

(mu0 * L(t) * (W2+L(t)2-
L(t) * sqrt(W2+L(t)2)))]

5) Differential Equation of Motion

The results from parts 4 and 5 can be combined to replace all instances
of
I(t) and I'(t) and leave a differential equation in terms of L(t), L'(t),
L''(t), etc. (slug position, velocity, acceleration, etc)

It is hoped that Mathematica will be able to solve this differential

equation to give an analytical form of the equations of motion for the
slug
in terms of physical variables like the mass of the slug, rail
separation,
and capacitance.

This will represent the end of the theory effort for the railgun and we
will
then proceed to design considerations and begin construction.
(assuming, of course, that the numbers don't indicate that we require
1000
Farads of capacitance or one million volts or something.)

References:
Griffiths, David J. Introduction to Electrodynamics - 2nd ed.
1989. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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Last Updated
99.12.11