This is a Java simulation of an air-core inductor. You should see an applet (below) with slider controls to select the coil's dimensions and wire size. (Trouble? See below for IE4 browsers.) Note it does not include any effects of a projectile.
Note: The reported resistance is too low -- please multiply the reported resistance by 10.764 to get the correct value. A bug in the Java code divides by a constant that represents "feet per meter" and it should be multiplying. So the value is wrong by a factor of "feet per meter" squared, or 10.764.
This program calculates inductance using
0.8 * (N*A)^2
L (uH) = -------------------
(6A) + (9B) + (10C)
where N = number of turns, A = average coil radius, B = coil length, and C = coil
thickness. All dimensions are in inches and the result is microhenries. The simulator
handles all necessary conversions to metric and millihenries.
The simulator will incidentally give you other handy information, such as the number of turns and the length of wire needed.
Your goal in this simulator is to design a coil with a certain amount of inductance. You should have already chosen a target inductance value somehow, perhaps by experimenting with the RLC Simulator program. Here you can try various wire sizes and physical dimensions to see what happens. The idea is to design a coil which can be physically built, and which has a reasonably low amount of resistance.
The program was written with NetBeans (www.netbeans.org) using AWT classes. My Java source code is open and freely available in two files: InductorSim7.java runs the user interface and simulates the coil. A helper class CopperWire.java describes characteristics of copper wire, using values graciously supplied by WireTron, a manufacturer of wires for electromagnets. Any errors are solely my own.
I want to keep the Internet clean so please report bugs, request features, make suggestions and send me compliments about this simulator. Of course I am also grateful if you send suggested updates in Java source code form!
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| Last update August 3, 2002 by Barry ©1998-2002 |
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