ELECTRO MAGNETIC RAILGUN

• PRESENTED BY
• VISHNU K
• S5 MECHANICAL
ENGG.
• REG.NO:LIDK17ME0
67
• ROLL NO:49
 CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Construction
 Working
 Applications
 Types
 Advantages
 Disadvantages
 Conclusion
 Video
 INTRODUCTION
An electro magnetic projectile launcher
A good weapon in defence field
New assisting method for launching air crafts
Invented by Louis Octave Fauchon-Villepple in 1918
Research on railgun in 1950 in Austrelia and made as
experiment in 1962
Wide research by US Navy in 2000
In 2003,Ian Nab plans to build a system to launch supply
in to space usin railgun technology
 CONSTRUCTION

Simple construction,made up of 3 parts

1. A power source
2. A pair of parallel rails
3. A moving armature
 Current about 1 million amperes
Rails are made up of conductive metals like copper...
Length of rails ranges from 4 to 30 feet(about 9 meters)
An armature is a solid piece of conductive material to carry the
projectile
Rail Gun -Basic Parts
 WORKING
 According to that working
set up electron flow from
the negative terminal
through negative rail across
the projectile and through
positive rail back to the
power supply.This current
makes the railgun behaves
as a electro magnet
 Considers the Right hand
rule
 Due to this arrangement
Lorentz force is produced
and it accelerates the
projectile along the rails
away from power supply
 If a current of one ampere flows in a
pair of ideal infinatly long conductors
that are seperated by a distance of one
meter ,the magnitide of force in each
meter of those conductors will be
exactly 0.2 newtons
 The force will be proportional to the
square of the magnitude of current and
inversly proportional to the distance
between the conductors
 So that a large power supply about one
million amperes of current will create a
tremendous force on the projectile
,accelerating it to a speed of many kilo
meters per second (Km/s)
 APPLICATIONS
 Railguns have a number of potential practical applications
1. Launch or launch assist of space crafts
• The space vehicles would circle the spiral track numarous times to gain the
speed before being released in to skyward
• in 2003,ian McNab plans to made the system to launch food,water&fuel for
space travellers
• that system would cost $528/Kg compared with $5000/Kg on a conventional
rocket
• The launch track would be 1.6 Km long and contains 100 rotating
compulsators and each machine would would have 3.3 ton carbon
fibre rotor spinning at high speed
• 10 Mw power used for system and the magnetic field gets from the
rails and augmenting magnets
2.Weaponry

• Railguns are researched as weapons with projectiles,that do not contain

explosives or proppellents
• it have the high velocity 2500 m/s (8200 feet/second),An M16 Rifle has a
muzzle speed of 930 m/s (3050 feet/second)
• By firing smaller projectiles at extremely high velocities,railguns yields higher
kinetic energy impacts ,achieve upto 10 MJ as the muzzle
• Firing of aerodynamically stremelined projectiles at greater velocities,
achieve greater range,less time to target and less wind draft
• It can deliver area of effect damage by detonating a bursting charge in the
projectile which over a large area
• The speed of the projectie would be almost 7 times of the sound and it can
covers the distance of about 110 nautical mile
3.Trigger for initial confinement fusion
 TYPES OF RAILGUN

1) Helical railgun
• One type of railgun having two rails are surrounded by a
helical barrel
• The projectile is energised continuesly by two brushes sliding
along the rails
• A helical railgun was built in 1980 and it was about 3 meters
long , consisting of 2 meters of accelerating coil and one
meter of decelerating coil
• It was able to launch a projectile about 500 meters
2) Plasma railgun
 Plasma railgun involves a non conductive projectile and a
plasma armature
 In this method , small filament is placed behind the non
conductive projectile , when the power is applied to the rails ,
the filament vaporizes and an arc conducting plasma is
formed between the rails
 The arc is then accelerated down the barrel by the Lorentz
force , pushing the projectile as it goes
 In practice it is difficult to implement
 ADVANTAGES
 The railgun has a much larger possible
power than a powder gun
 Currently we have been able to reach
velocities around 9 Km/s with the
railgun;whereas the maximum velocity a
power gun can reach is less than 8.5km/s.It
is believed that the railgun can reach up to
140km/s
 Since the railgun depends entirely on a
massive current, there is no need for fuel
or explosives.This is more efficient in three
ways
A. The risk is greatly reduced for the sailors
hanling the weapon systems
B. The weight of the entire system is reduced
C. The smaller size frees up a lot of space ,
which is crucial in cramped battle ships
 DISADVANTAGES

 Maintaining the structural

integrity of the rails as the
undergo such stressful
conditions
 The thermal management of
the entire system ,especially
as the rails increase in size
needs to improve
 The pulsed power unit and
supply could be compacted
 Power supply too big and
heavy - needs 3 story
building
Electro magnetic railgun located in Virginia
THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS??