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Post by OakTree on Aug 31, 2018 1:41:24 GMT
I’m not a weapons engineer so I wouldn’t know, but could COADE railguns work in real life? Their rate of fire seems ridiculous, the rails appear to never erode, the armatures don’t fuse to the rails, some armature materials don’t appear realistic, and I am pretty sure that the velocities they accelerate to are impossible (200 km/s from a small gun would shatter the gun and the projectile, right)?
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Post by apophys on Aug 31, 2018 3:15:33 GMT
Indeed, these railguns don't seem realistic, as they are.
However, using a plasma armature (and pushing a payload) might allow similar performance values, since plasma shouldn't have such issues with erosion, spot welding, or the velocity skin effect. It's hard to be sure though, because such things are classified.
Electrically charging bits of metal and accelerating them as in a particle accelerator is a possible and interesting alternative, with which you can certainly get up to and beyond 200 km/s.
Particle accelerators in general would be an excellent addition.
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Post by AtomHeartDragon on Aug 31, 2018 8:12:19 GMT
Yet another reason to build more lasers and missiles stock-like stuff. Electrically charging bits of metal and accelerating them as in a particle accelerator is a possible and interesting alternative, with which you can certainly get up to and beyond 200 km/s. Particle accelerators in general would be an excellent addition. I would love them to be included but I don't think current damage model can handle that. |
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Post by Fgdfgfthgr on Aug 31, 2018 10:00:00 GMT
No for most of the time, because graphite aerogel doesn't work like that.
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ghgh
Full Member
Still trying to make kinetics work.
Posts: 136
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Post by ghgh on Aug 31, 2018 13:18:21 GMT
So I was screwing around with the rail-gun editor (can't for the life of me get a coil-gun to work.) I tweaked the barrel to the point where it was short but strong enough to shoot the 1 gram projectile without shattering the projectile or the barrel. A red error popped up saying the weapon would suffer excessive meltage. I think that means it is turned to plasma. Still not sure if the metlage is caused by the spike in acceleration or from the total power output but I think the former because power output is simulated in overheated weapons and as barrel length increases the meltage lowers.
Given how well Graphogel is at insulating plasma from a whipple plate the fact that it is such a good barrel armor makes sense to me.
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Post by AdmiralObvious on Sept 1, 2018 0:11:09 GMT
So I was screwing around with the rail-gun editor (can't for the life of me get a coil-gun to work.) I tweaked the barrel to the point where it was short but strong enough to shoot the 1 gram projectile without shattering the projectile or the barrel. A red error popped up saying the weapon would suffer excessive meltage. I think that means it is turned to plasma. Still not sure if the metlage is caused by the spike in acceleration or from the total power output but I think the former because power output is simulated in overheated weapons and as barrel length increases the meltage lowers. Given how well Graphogel is at insulating plasma from a whipple plate the fact that it is such a good barrel armor makes sense to me. Meltage has to do with the conductivity of the thing being shot, and it's peak temperature. So, shooting a piece of silver with a lot of wattage will inevitably cause the shot to melt, unless you lessen the speed of the wattage being applied with a longer barrel. Things with higher melting temperature are less likely to melt. Things which are more resistive tend to melt more though. |
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Post by AtomHeartDragon on Sept 1, 2018 8:51:45 GMT
So I was screwing around with the rail-gun editor (can't for the life of me get a coil-gun to work.) I tweaked the barrel to the point where it was short but strong enough to shoot the 1 gram projectile without shattering the projectile or the barrel. A red error popped up saying the weapon would suffer excessive meltage. I think that means it is turned to plasma. Still not sure if the metlage is caused by the spike in acceleration or from the total power output but I think the former because power output is simulated in overheated weapons and as barrel length increases the meltage lowers. Given how well Graphogel is at insulating plasma from a whipple plate the fact that it is such a good barrel armor makes sense to me. If your barrel armour needs to contain plasma inside, you no longer need barrel armour - barrel armour implies existence of barrel. |
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Post by doctorsquared on Sept 1, 2018 19:48:15 GMT
I sort of doubt the longevity of the higher-power railguns that are rapidly firing slugs at 50-200 km/s repeatedly. There's going to be slight distortion in the barrel as the weapon heats up, and manufacturing tolerances on the sabots that are being fired mean that there's going to at least be some friction and barrel erosion going on which would be considerable at those velocities.
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Post by gedzilla on Sept 2, 2018 12:50:40 GMT
Indeed, these railguns don't seem realistic, as they are. However, using a plasma armature (and pushing a payload) might allow similar performance values, since plasma shouldn't have such issues with erosion, spot welding, or the velocity skin effect. It's hard to be sure though, because such things are classified. Electrically charging bits of metal and accelerating them as in a particle accelerator is a possible and interesting alternative, with which you can certainly get up to and beyond 200 km/s. Particle accelerators in general would be an excellent addition. I mean some of our current railguns seem like particle accelerators |
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Post by boersgard on Sept 4, 2018 15:57:05 GMT
aren't all guns technically particle accelerators?
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ghgh
Full Member
Still trying to make kinetics work.
Posts: 136
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Post by ghgh on Sept 5, 2018 1:39:09 GMT
aren't all guns technically particle accelerators? A particle accelerator accelerates singular or near singular particles and high velocities. A gun accelerates large masses of particles at high velocities. |
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Post by AtomHeartDragon on Sept 9, 2018 12:37:37 GMT
aren't all guns technically particle accelerators? A particle accelerator accelerates singular or near singular particles and high velocities. A gun accelerates large masses of particles at high velocities. So as long as you shoot diamond bullets... |
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Post by anonymous on Sept 30, 2018 5:08:15 GMT
using a plasma armature (and pushing a payload) woah slow down man, what do you mean? |
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Post by AtomHeartDragon on Sept 30, 2018 10:21:21 GMT
using a plasma armature (and pushing a payload) woah slow down man, what do you mean? Instead of sliding a conductive piece of metal along the rails and have it scrape along and bump off any tiny imperfections at many km/s with accompanying massive friction and arcing, you create and accelerate some plasma which is somewhat milder on the rails.
Since plasma is going to disperse rapidly after shot, which makes for a lousy projectile, you push something solid with this plasma.
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