The present invention relates to methods and structures for disrupting targets using a gas powered (pressurized) fluid gun.
In order to disrupt improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or rioting individuals, breach doors or structures, and arrest the movement of unauthorized vehicles, it would be desirable to have a stand off device that could be carried via backpack, carried by vehicle (e.g., car, truck, aircraft, or trailer), or emplaced at a critical locations (e.g., an embassy) to accomplish such tasks. While this has been accomplished with solid projectile firing guns (e.g., firing bean bag rounds or rubber bullets), water cannons (fire trucks), and nets, there are serious limitations to each of these technologies.
Relevant prior art inventions that use pressurized air to propel water from a storage container include a fire extinguisher (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,700 to Phalen), and toy water guns (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,987 to D'Andrade; and 6,364,162 to Johnson et al.). None of these patents teach structures or methods for mitigating or eliminating momentum-induced recoil forces.
The present invention relates to a gas powered fluid gun and concomitant method for launching a stream or slug of fluid towards a target. One method comprises storing gas in a gas tank at greater than ambient pressure; providing fluid to be propelled in a fluid tank; conducting pressurized gas between the first and second tank; conducting fluid from the pressurized fluid tank to an opening in a side of a gun barrel via a fluid discharge valve; ejecting a rapidly-moving slug of the fluid from one end of the gun barrel towards a target; and simultaneously ejecting a rearward-moving stream of the fluid from the rear end of the gun barrel. By launching a quantity of water in the opposite direction, net momentum forces are reduced or eliminated. The gas can comprise air, nitrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, steam, or a mixture thereof. The fluid can comprise one or more of water, lubricants, foaming agents, thickening agents, gelling agents, tagants, chemical agents, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, malodorants, hydrocarbons, and fire suppressing agents. Recoil forces can be mitigated by using a recoil mitigation device located at an end opposite from that which the fluid slug is ejected. Examples of recoil mitigation devices include a cone for making a conical fluid sheet, a device forming multiple impinging streams of fluid, a cavitating venturi, one or more spinning vanes, or an annular tangential entry/exit. A user can control the volume of fluid ejected, diameter of the stream of fluid ejected, and length of the stream of fluid (slug) ejected.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form a part of the specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating one or more preferred embodiments of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. In the drawings:
The present invention relates to a gas powered fluid gun, and method of use, that can accomplish disruption tasks with minimum collateral damage. The invention can be tailored for disrupting a wide variety of targets ranging from humans to vehicles. The invention employs a gas stored at high pressure (e.g., air, nitrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, steam, etc.) to pressurize a working fluid, such as water (which can be seawater). The fluid is propelled from the device at high speed and directed at the target. The volume, length and diameter (or mass) of fluid, velocity, and velocity gradient of the stream can all be controlled to achieve the desired target effects.
In the present invention, stored high-pressure gas is used to propel the fluid. The energy stored in the gas can be accumulated over a long period of time thereby requiring minimal peak power input to pressurize the gas. When the fluid is rapidly expelled from the device by the gas, high peak powers can be realized, without requiring the burden of large heavy pumps and power sources. By regulating the gas pressure, the fluid speed can be accurately controlled. Valves can be used to control the mass of fluid delivered to the target.
Materials can be added to the fluid to produce additional effects. For example, lubricants can be added to a water-based system to reduce traction at the target or agents added to thicken or gel the fluid (e.g., polysaccharides, glycols, carboxymethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose, acrylates, acrylimides, polyethylene oxide, colloidal silica, etc), dissolved gases (carbon dioxide) can be used that produce a foam on impact with the target; and tagants (e.g., dyes); or readily absorbed or inhaled chemical agents (e.g., tear gas, nitrous oxide, malodorants, etc) can be used to provide irritant, anesthetic, or other deleterious effects to the target. Fire suppressing agents can be used to prevent or mitigate combustion. In addition, other working fluids in place of water can be used such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons, etc., to enhance or produce the desired down range effects.
Pressurized gas (e.g., compressed air) is used to pressurize a fluid tank (e.g., water). The fluid tank can be isolated from the gas tank via a valve prior to use. Next, a fluid discharge valve is opened to allow the exit of the fluid from the fluid tank, being propelled by the pressurized gas pushing it forward. The fluid travels through piping or tubing, and then rapidly exits out through an optional nozzle that controls the diameter of the stream. The fluid flow can be non-turbulent (laminar flow) so as to maintain the integrity of the column of fluid or “jet” as a rod of water. As the jet travels through the air, the tip of the jet will erode. By keeping the fluid discharge valve open long enough, a jet or slug of water will reach the target.
By controlling the timing of when to close the fluid discharge valve, the length of the fluid column (slug) can be accurately controlled. Closing the valve early allows a blast of mist or droplets to reach the target. In this way, the momentum delivered to the target can be controlled. For soft target (e.g., canines or humans), a short slug of lower velocity water can be used to provide the incentive for the target to leave the area, and higher velocity and/or longer slugs can be used to disable an adversary. For hard targets (e.g., against vehicles or for breaching) a long, high velocity slug can be used to deliver maximum momentum to the target thereby halting its approach in the case of a vehicle, or knocking down the target in the case of a door or wall. In the case of a suspected improvised explosive device (IED), the IED can be rendered inoperative and/or displaced from its location by the blast of fluid. Multiple pressurized gas tanks can be manifolded together to pressurize one or more fluid tank(s).
In all of these scenarios, the fluid produces little collateral damage, can act a fire retardant, and will dissipate harmlessly in the environment. In comparison to a solid projectile system (e.g., military small arms) little momentum can be transferred to a vehicle to stop it or push it from its intended path. The use of traditional breaching devices (e.g., rams or explosives) usually requires the operators to be in close proximity to the target. The invention allows significant stand off without endangering the breaching team. Finally, when used directly against individuals, beanbag rounds and rubber bullets can produce significant injuries and fatalities. Tailoring the momentum of the fluid slug can preclude this from happening.
For large, vehicle-born systems or backpack systems, recoil can be excessive. In order to mitigate recoil (impulse to the shooting platform), the duration of the firing can be controlled, and/or a recoil mitigation device can be employed to neutralize or reduce the recoil. By directing some of the fluid in the opposite direction from the jet or slug, the recoil can be minimized or eliminated. In order to prevent this “back blast” or “backwash” of fluid from damaging personal or objects it is desirable to dissipate the recoil mitigating stream rapidly. This can be done in several ways, such as causing a conical stream of the fluid to be ejected rewards. This conical sheet will rapidly break up. Alternatively, multiple nozzles can be employed that impinge on each other, thereby further breaking up the stream. Alternatively, a cavitating venturi can be employed to partially vaporize the water as it is ejected rewards. Alternatively, a rotational flow can be imparted via vanes (fixed or rotating vanes) or via an annular, swirling discharge to destabilize the rearward stream.
Referring still to
Although not specifically illustrated, the conically-shaped recoil mitigation device 76 in
Although the invention has been described in detail with particular reference to these preferred embodiments, other embodiments can achieve the same results. Variations and modifications of the present invention will be obvious to those skilled in the art and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications and equivalents. The entire disclosures of all references, applications, patents, and publications cited above are hereby incorporated by reference.
This application is a Continuation-in-Part (CIP) of pending patent application Ser. No. 11/484,938 filed Jul. 12, 2006 now abandoned, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The Government has rights to this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC04-94AL85000 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2745700 | Phalen | May 1956 | A |
3612405 | Heinrich | Oct 1971 | A |
RE30887 | Turley | Mar 1982 | E |
5339987 | D'Andrade | Aug 1994 | A |
6364162 | Johnson et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
20020083736 | Kotliar | Jul 2002 | A1 |
20060090907 | Crabtree et al. | May 2006 | A1 |
20080017391 | Lenz | Jan 2008 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11484938 | Jul 2006 | US |
Child | 12948801 | US |