Railgun slug loading sequence

[railgap]

Believe it or not, those are gigantic, heavy gauge coaxial cables folks. If they weren't, they'd have a lot of wasted stray inductance. The force on the projectile goes as 1/2 * L * I^2, where L is the instantaneous inductance in the gun, and I is the current. Any OTHER inductance in the current loop between gun and supply is wasted, but DOES serve to impede the rise time of the current pulse. They talk about the cables in several of the white papers on this thing (Dahlgren's 32 MJ gun)

[supernaturalguru]

And who said science aint cool.

[psychohitler]

wats with all them hoses...damn....i think there's enough to make 4 sets of car tyres there...

[zanta24]

Not hoses, cable's to the capacitor bank.

[psychohitler]

either way,thats a ridiculous load of rubber lol

[Templar4450th]

Yep, it's a necessity due to the insane amounts of electricity flowing through them. Without all that insulation for the cables, there could be an electrical arc, and that would be rather nasty.

[leonidas1491]

@psychohitler thats wat she sed, sorry couldnt help it

[shalaaad]

i always heard numerous different theories behind the operation of railguns. i'm still unsure what the scientific approach even is. anyone willing to clarify this please? ;)

[Coiltec]

Lots of cables at the gun! Perhaps they should better use two big copper bars instead of a hundred normal cables.

[Britishdude1]

When it leaves the barrel it is molten and it turns the air around it to plasma.

Very Cool!

[AnselmoFanZero]

Not really molten...a part of it evaporates...when it leaves the barrel, there is no more plasma. Only flames ;-)

Plasma is very unstable...

[QwazyWabbit]

It has to be pressed in to make contact with the rails. Tight fit is needed so that it maintains contact with the rails when it is fired. This is a research platform, loading and firing is all about the materials and what works and what doesn't work.

Black powder? How much powder would it take to push 3.52kg at 8200 feet per sec? Think about it.

[i3iograffiti]

they have to do all that shitt to load it? why not just use black powder rifles instead?

[Sarinx7]

Very cool