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Post by Enderminion on Feb 22, 2017 19:21:40 GMT
At that point you carry spare barrels, compared to the mass of a turret the rail mass could be quite low. also we know how to make barrels last for thousands of shots, even cannon barrels. The wear and tear on railgun barrels is much more severe than on cannon barrels (coilguns should only experience mild wear and tear). I believe (though I might be wrong about this)that while tank guns are rated for 10 000 rounds, the Pegasus Railgun has to replace its barrels every 20 rounds. Sure, the technology is immature, but I don't expect railgun barrel life expectancy to ever approach that of conventional cannons. two things, a coilgun can suspend a round in the middle of the barrel not touching the sides, and you carry spare barrels
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Post by bigbombr on Feb 22, 2017 19:40:23 GMT
The wear and tear on railgun barrels is much more severe than on cannon barrels (coilguns should only experience mild wear and tear). I believe (though I might be wrong about this)that while tank guns are rated for 10 000 rounds, the Pegasus Railgun has to replace its barrels every 20 rounds. Sure, the technology is immature, but I don't expect railgun barrel life expectancy to ever approach that of conventional cannons. two things, a coilgun can suspend a round in the middle of the barrel not touching the sides, and you carry spare barrels Coilguns don't experience friction, but they do experience stress. And replacing your barrels every 20 rounds really limits your rate of fire.
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Post by David367th on Feb 22, 2017 20:05:15 GMT
two things, a coilgun can suspend a round in the middle of the barrel not touching the sides, and you carry spare barrels Coilguns don't experience friction, but they do experience stress. And replacing your barrels every 20 rounds really limits your rate of fire. Or just keep firing, where you now have a coilgun that has a shotgun effect without using flak shells. Then you just keep firing until you would have the magnetic equivalent of a backfire.
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Post by Enderminion on Feb 22, 2017 20:27:42 GMT
I don't know much about specifics about these systems, I know how rail and coilguns work but not the specifics
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Post by bdcarrillo on Feb 22, 2017 21:36:05 GMT
I remember reading that the railgun wear issue had been largely resolved... Something about a bit of aluminum that becomes molten and lubricates the rails but tends not to adhere or gouge.
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Post by deltav on Feb 22, 2017 23:43:58 GMT
I remember reading that the railgun wear issue had been largely resolved... Something about a bit of aluminum that becomes molten and lubricates the rails but tends not to adhere or gouge. That's classic, aluminum "grease"! Makes sense though. If moving components are wearing out due to friction, then it makes sense to make some kind of lubricant for them.
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Post by David367th on Feb 22, 2017 23:53:05 GMT
I remember reading that the railgun wear issue had been largely resolved... Something about a bit of aluminum that becomes molten and lubricates the rails but tends not to adhere or gouge. That what I was thinking. We already know how to let two pieces of metal scrape against each other without hurting either, why would it be a problem in railguns?
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Post by lieste on Feb 23, 2017 0:29:40 GMT
Some of the wear may also be by making the rail surface a plasma, as well as a portion of the armature.
The magnetic stresses and inductive and resistive heating can be significant and may dominate in some materials.
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Post by deltav on Feb 23, 2017 0:33:21 GMT
Some of the wear may also be by making the rail surface a plasma, as well as a portion of the armature. The magnetic stresses and inductive and resistive heating can be significant and may dominate in some materials. That would be those partial melting error messages we get no? The material has to melt to become plasma right? As long as nothing melts, there shouldn't be any plasma. Or is that incorrect? ------ The magnetic stresses would be dependent on the design of the rails and the sabot/armature, and the heating should be dissipated by the large solid metal nature of the rails/barrel no? Just wondering.
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Post by lieste on Feb 23, 2017 0:44:00 GMT
It refers to projectile melting. TBH, I find the absence of plasma or hybrid armatures (which are common) and the ease with which really powerful weapons don't cause melting of the rail and/or armature to be questionable. Second order issue after the basics (energy conservation and finite rail integration giving higher velocity than the 'infinite rail' approximation being the zeroeth and first order issues).
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