Coilgun Design by Simulation

Idea of electromagnetic mass driver invariably attracts the attention of both hobbyists in physics, electronics and electrical engineering and people working in these fields at a scientific and research level. Coilguns (aka Gaussian cannons) are one of the most popular devices of this type due to their simplicity and well understood principles of operation. This article describes a computer model of a four-section cannon in which the control of power supply to the solenoids driving the projectile is based on RS switches, electromagnetic tracking of the projectile in the barrel and IGBT transistors switching the power supply to individual solenoids. In order to create the field and circuit models, the ANSYS software environment was used: ANSYS Maxwell2D helped to create a field model of an axisymmetric gun barrel combined with a dynamic model created in ANSYS Simplorer, which solved the circuital and mechanical equations for projectile motion. The aim of authors is to show how much the coupling of the field and circuit models simplify the improvement of the design.