Shooting device for free-surface impact studies

The hydrodynamics of free-surface impacts are of great interest to scientists across many disciplines including ocean engineering, fluids mechanics, and biology. This thesis focuses on designing a mechanism to shoot small projectiles downward. Two pneumatic shooting mechanisms were investigated: the potato gun and the paintball gun. Adaptations were made to the paintball gun, as a preliminary design; however, it was later concluded that pneumatics were not the best way to propel the projectile. The final design includes a pinball shooter to propel the ball and an electromagnet to suspend the ball before shooting. This shooting mechanism uses magnetic balls of diameter 1 inch and can achieve velocities of 278 m/s when located 1 m above the free surface. The adaptability of the mechanism to other downward shooting situations is discussed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Daigh, Sara L. (Sarah Louise), 1981-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alexandra H. Techet.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32823

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32823