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Post by jasonvance on Jan 15, 2017 22:16:52 GMT
To clarify, where should I be keeping that band? Just short of supercriticality without burning through all the fuel? As long as the band is over the little marker in the middle your reactor is stable criticality wise. The burning through the fuel problem is a bit weirder to deal with since there isn't any good feedback or stats to really optimize for you just have to wiggle the band around to milk more out of it. Start with a really low neutron flux and increase it right up to the limit to where it gives the burning too fast error. Then wiggle the reactor dimensions, moderator amount, control rod amount (if it runs off into super critical) and see if you can bump the neutron flux up (gets better). If while you are wiggling the sliders around the burning too fast error crops back up you went the wrong way. Through a lot of trial and error you can eventually end up milking a pretty high sustainable neutron flux. Starting from a stable point is really helpful for getting more neutron flux out of a reactor as you can make micro adjustment in one direction then very slowly increment up the neutron flux and play marco polo with the optimal zone. If you start completely fresh you have to find a stable point to start the neutron flux wiggle. |
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Post by David367th on Jan 16, 2017 3:36:07 GMT
Isn't the point of subcriticality and supercriticality, to have a range between basically off and on?
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Post by jasonvance on Jan 16, 2017 3:47:23 GMT
Isn't the point of subcriticality and supercriticality, to have a range between basically off and on? Sort of, it is a measure of how many free neutrons you are producing. When bringing a reactor online you need to get the fission going so you will be in a super critical position. Once up to a reasonable rate of fission the control rods will be lowered into the reactor to absorb neutrons to slow the process down and balance the fission rate. If you are sub critical you aren't producing enough free neutrons to maintain a nuclear reaction and the reactor will eventually decay down to waste heat only and fission will eventually stop on its own. If you are super critical your reactor will melt itself eventually from ever increasing fission energy. Most reactors in real life (not modeled in game) have a fast shutdown rod setup. Which is basically a bunch of control rods that can be lowered into the reactor to turn it off by absorbing free neutrons and putting the reactor into a sub critical state. *note the reactor will still be dealing with waste heat even though fission has halted and will need days or weeks to cool down to a safe-ish level* |
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Post by zuthal on Jan 16, 2017 18:07:58 GMT
I have made a reactor which is a flat upgrade from ash19256's 70 kW GPR, at only 4.11 kg and 138 c for the same power output, waste heat and outlet temperature. ThermoelectricFissionReactorModule 70.0 kW Reactor 10 cm 4.11 kg
UsesCustomName true
ReactorCoreDimensions_m 0.1 0.02
NuclearReactor
Coolant Ethane
Moderator Graphite
ModeratorMass_kg 0
Fuel U-233 Dioxide
FuelMass_kg 0.1
FuelEnrichment_Percent 0.97
ControlRodComposition Boron Nitride
ControlRodMass_kg 0.1
NeutronReflector Boron Nitride
ReflectorThickness_m 0
AverageNeutronFlux__m2_s 1.3e+18
InnerTurbopump
Composition Amorphous Carbon
PumpRadius_m 0.058
RotationalSpeed_RPM 350
ThermocoupleInnerDimensions_m 0.099 0.1
Thermocouple
PTypeComposition Tungsten
NTypeComposition Osmium
Length_m 0.001
ThermocoupleExitTemperature_K 2400
OuterCoolant Sodium
OuterTurbopump
Composition Polyethylene
PumpRadius_m 0.012
RotationalSpeed_RPM 3.2 |
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Post by Enderminion on Jan 17, 2017 2:26:41 GMT
going to point out again that silver is slightly better for railguns then Z-copper and that the armature should be sliver or Z-copper for max speed
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Post by tessfield on Jan 17, 2017 2:38:15 GMT
Whoa, that's a lot of notifications! xD I can't go through all of it right now, but I'll update the OP with people's suggestions/advice. Don't worry about posting something twice, I go through all posts one by one to get the info Enderminion. I also don't check the forum every day and don't have email notifications enabled. Which I probably should. I saw something about company names, and fiction and projects, and I'm going to be replying to that in that thread because that sounds awesome. Thanks for the submissions, advice, and for keeping the discussion going guys! |
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Post by David367th on Jan 17, 2017 2:50:27 GMT
going to point out again that silver is slightly better for railguns then Z-copper and that the armature should be sliver or Z-copper for max speed Yeah the ZrCu-ZrCu combo really works out, though I'd imagine the armature would cold weld to the barrel.. IIRC Silver breaks from less pressure so that's why it isn't used. Whoa, that's a lot of notifications! xD I can't go through all of it right now, but I'll update the OP with people's suggestions/advice. Don't worry about posting something twice, I go through all posts one by one to get the info Enderminion . I also don't check the forum every day and don't have email notifications enabled. Which I probably should. I saw something about company names, and fiction and projects, and I'm going to be replying to that in that thread because that sounds awesome. Thanks for the submissions, advice, and for keeping the discussion going guys! I'd help you out a little bit if I could but I don't really know BBCode very well ^^' guess I need to start learning. |
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Post by newageofpower on Jan 17, 2017 5:50:41 GMT
going to point out again that silver is slightly better for railguns then Z-copper and that the armature should be sliver or Z-copper for max speed Unfortunately, silver's (grossly inferior) mechanical properties simply do not outweigh it's (excellent) electrical properties because our railguns are both monolithic and unbraced. :/ |
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Post by zuthal on Jan 17, 2017 6:42:52 GMT
We really need to be able to make composite rails/coils - like, say, a silver core with a VCS cover.
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Post by Enderminion on Jan 17, 2017 12:02:47 GMT
going to point out again that silver is slightly better for railguns then Z-copper and that the armature should be sliver or Z-copper for max speed Unfortunately, silver's (grossly inferior) mechanical properties simply do not outweigh it's (excellent) electrical properties because our railguns are both monolithic and unbraced. :/ still worth mentioning for if they become braced. |
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Post by newageofpower on Jan 17, 2017 14:18:07 GMT
We really need to be able to make composite rails/coils Literally what I've been begging for since the beginning of this year. |
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utilitas
Junior Member
I can do this all day.
Posts: 59
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Post by utilitas on Jan 17, 2017 15:10:14 GMT
Same should apply to conventional guns, as well as a varied barrel thickness. As far as I am aware, and this may be completely innaccurate as it could just be a graphical model thing, but conventional gun barrels are just straight cylinders of X material. Ideally, they should taper down to a smaller thickness, although that might need some more complex equations. You don't need your gun barrel to withstand the same pressures at the base as at its exhaust. Either way, I have something to contribute. This nuclear payload is a few centimeters smaller than the current smallest payload, so I guess it'd count (nearly 2,5 cm). It does, however, come at a cost. But it allows for even smaller bullets/missiles (missiles which, by the way, will be wider anyway due to the control module being too big. I tried.) Some fiddling around could probably make it even smaller.  NuclearPayloadModule 'Nut' >3cm 96.8 t Boosted Fission Nuke
UsesCustomName true
CoreComposition Pu-239
ReflectorComposition Vanadium Chromium Steel
SlowExplosive
CombustionReaction Silicon Thermite
DelayComposition Boron
DelayCompositionMassFraction 0
FastExplosive Octogen
CoreMass_kg 0.01
Enrichment_Percent 0.97
HollowCoreRadius_m 0.011
InnerExplosiveWidth_m 0.014
FusionBoost Deuterium Tritium
FusionFuelDensity_kg__m3 110
Detonator
HardRange_km 0
ActivationRange_km 0.2
MinimumRange_km 0
OverrideTimer_s 0
TargetsShips true
TargetsShots true
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]'Nut' 2.58cm 96.8t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@utilitas[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]96.8 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]60.2 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]455 g[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/loiP9BP.png"]http://i.imgur.com/loiP9BP.png[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]http://pastebin.com/r4wnvrC2[/td]
[/tr] |
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utilitas
Junior Member
I can do this all day.
Posts: 59
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Post by utilitas on Jan 17, 2017 17:13:25 GMT
Also, might it be a slight issue that I run all my reactors at a chilly 1100K? I exploit the use of super-light and super-cheap calcium gigaradiators all the time, and can therefore afford a little bigger reactors at the advantage of a whole bunch of really cheap radiators. My reactors go near 30% efficiency even on GW scales.
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Post by caiaphas on Jan 17, 2017 17:22:44 GMT
Also, might it be a slight issue that I run all my reactors at a chilly 1100K? I exploit the use of super-light and super-cheap calcium gigaradiators all the time, and can therefore afford a little bigger reactors at the advantage of a whole bunch of really cheap radiators. My reactors go near 30% efficiency even on GW scales. ...well, I guess it means that it's just that more vulnerable to sandblaster fire, if your radiators are that much larger. How wide are your ships? |
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utilitas
Junior Member
I can do this all day.
Posts: 59
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Post by utilitas on Jan 17, 2017 17:36:40 GMT
...well, I guess it means that it's just that more vulnerable to sandblaster fire, if your radiators are that much larger. How wide are your ships? They're more tall than wide. They're so cheap because I armor them only with the ship itself. I standardized all my weapons, crew modules and power production to 1100K so I can have seamless radiators. And besides, with 3x 1 GW lasers, I won't be getting hit in the first place. |
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