Design and implementation of a three-coil linear reluctance launcher

In this study, a three-coil reluctance launcher system was designed and an experimental prototype of the proposed system was implemented. The designed system has 3 separate coils and these coils can be energized individually. Thus, the contribution of each energized coil should be examined. Various-length ferromagnetic projectiles having different magnetic properties can be launched by this system. A velocity measurement system was also designed and implemented to measure the muzzle velocity of the launched projectiles. Thus, performance of the system can be analyzed by measuring the velocities of launched projectiles. The ferromagnetic projectiles were launched via capacitors charged DC 250V. The performances were analyzed by launching different sizes of AISI1020 and AISI1050 cores with the system. The launched cores are 5, 7 and 9 cm long. The effect of the projectile length on velocity was also studied.