Melting of railgun projectiles

Melting of railgun projectiles Jun 23, 2017 9:18:40 GMT via mobile RiftandRend likes this

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Post by omnipotentvoid on Jun 23, 2017 9:18:40 GMT

Jun 23, 2017 8:22:03 GMT shiolle said:

I was wondering how the game calculates heat delivered to the projectile when the railgun is fired. I assumed as the mass of the projectile drops, the melting should become a bigger problem, but it is apparently the opposite. Here is what CDE data files tell us:

DesignMessage RailgunProjectileMeltage
Text Projectile exceeds safety temperature margins (%s excess meltage).
ExtraInfo Increase the rail conductivity, increase the rail thickness, reduce the armature mass, or use a armature material that is more dense or has a greater specific heat.

So, how is it calculated?

The main heat source in high energy rail guns is resistive heating. P=U*I or P=R*I^2 where P is the generated heat per second, U the voltage, I the current and R the resistance, is decent if extremely simplified way to describe this heating. In the application of rail guns (even hobbyist ones) currents will range between a few kA to GA in some in game designs. High voltage is also required to generate such high currents ranging from a few hundred V in hobbyists designs to hundreds of kV in actual weapons systems. Smaller projectiles mean less resistance and less voltage. This can be seen in game with capacitors, the lower the capacitors voltage, the less heat generated. And less voltage is needed for smaller projectiles and thicker rails.

Post by shiolle on Jun 23, 2017 8:22:03 GMT

Post by omnipotentvoid on Jun 23, 2017 9:18:40 GMT