Exploration and verification analysis of a Linear Reluctance Accelerator

Abstract

Little research is done in the field of Linear Reluctance Accelerators (coilguns) owing to their notorious inefficiency, difficulties in modeling their behavior, as well as little interest in them in lieu of seemingly better alternatives such as railguns, which has stifled much of the advancement in the field. Here, a study and re-examination of Dr. William Slades's 2005 paper “A Simple Unified Physical Model for a Reluctance Accelerator” was performed to validate and continue further research suggestions mentioned within the paper. In our experimentation, the Slade accelerator was rebuilt using high saturation armatures, thin walled barrels, and a more powerful capacitor bank. We carried out our experiment using armatures of vanadium permendur, electrical iron, and 12L14 steel. Tektronix oscilloscope interface software was implemented to measure coil voltage, current, and armature exit velocities, and our results were compared to Slade's results and his modeling equations. Results compiled establish a reasonable set of guidelines for designing these devices to achieve maximum efficiency.