I have used my big capacitor bank to drive the coilgun 3kJ at higher levels.
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This shows a 46 turn coil about 4 cm diameter and about 5 cm long. The iron rod projectile is just over 4 cm and weighs 33 g. I tried various energies from 500 J to 3 kJ in sequence. Here is the last shot sequence. 2 kJ gave the most powerful shot and good deformation but not penetration of the can.
The left photo above shows the coil mounted vertically and covered by some PVC. A can lies on top. The right photo shows the firing at 3 kJ. It shows the can streaking upward, hitting the top board and ricocheting backwards which is the faint streak extending down from the upper board in the 1.3 second exposure. This was not due to the projectile which didn’t leave the barrel and was just due to the explosive force from the coil disruption.
The result of 3 kJ on the coil. The forces on the coil are axial compression and radial expansion leading to coil disruption and inter turn shorting.
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Photo Date: 2006