AN OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF CAPACITOR-DRIVEN COILGUN

This paper presents an analysis and optimal design of a capacitor-driven inductive coilgun. An equivalent circuit is used for a launch simulation of the coilgun. The circuit equations are solved together with the equation of motion of the projectile by using the Runge-Kutta method. The numerical results are compared with the experimental values to verify the usefulness of the developed simulation program. It is shown that the numerical and the experimental results are in a good agreement. In the design of the system the optimization is achieved by employing the genetic algorithm. The resultant specifications of the coilgun optimally designed by the proposed algorithm are tested by experiment. Finally the obtained results are compared with those designed by approximate equations and by linear search methods as well. It is found that the proposed algorithm gives a better result in the energy efficiency of the system, namely it enables one to obtain a higher muzzle velocity of the projectile with the same amount of energy.