Electromagnetic Rail Gun: 33 megajoule world record

[SHIRO HAYABUSA]

Can't wait to see this in action in the future: [URL="

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Conversions for Joules:

Practical examples

One joule in everyday life is approximately:

* the energy required to lift a small apple one metre straight up.
* the energy released when that same apple falls one metre to the ground.
* the energy released as heat by a person at rest, every hundredth of a second.
* the kinetic energy of a 50 kg human moving very slowly (0.2 m/s or 720 m/h).
* the kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 23 km/h (14 mph).[5]


The kilojoule (kJ) is equal to one thousand joules. Food labels in some countries express food energy in kilojoules. One kilojoule is about the maximum amount of solar radiation received by one square metre of the Earth in one second.[7]
[edit] Megajoule

The megajoule (MJ) is equal to one million joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a one-ton vehicle moving at 160 km/h (100 mph).
[edit] Gigajoule

The gigajoule (GJ) is equal to one billion joules. Six gigajoules is about the amount of potential chemical energy in a barrel of oil, when combusted.[8]
[edit] Terajoule

The terajoule (TJ) is equal to one trillion joules. About 60 terajoules were released by the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.[9]
[edit] Zettajoule

The zettajoule (ZJ) is equal to 1021 joules. Annual global energy consumption is approximately 0.5 ZJ

^^^^ Joule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ogre]

so this railgun uses the equivalent energy of an M1 abrams at 50 mph? approximately? that's quite a punch

 

[memorex]

The smoke and sound makes me think its fake. I know caps(capasitor) can make a loud sound when exploding. But this is suppose to be magnitic.

 

[Fastfrog007]

I wanna see it shoot something!!!

 

[pashnit]

I need to renew my subscription to Scientific American. That or Popular Mechanics.

 

[Goatkart]

The smoke and sound makes me think its fake. I know caps(capasitor) can make a loud sound when exploding. But this is suppose to be magnitic.

Definitly not faked...

I am actually fairly familiar with that setup, and am in real life working in coordination with a handful of engineers from two universities on creating a smaller size rail gun right now...

Though our size is significantly scaled down, in the light vehicular mounted scale...

In regards to the smoke and sound....

You better believe it makes both...

It is actually incorrect to believe that the projectile is solely accelerated by magnetic means.... its actually a combination of effects...

The smoke and usually sparks a fireball looking effect, are ACTUALLY frequently a plasma gas...


See, the armature must be initially accelerated by a pressurised gas setup frequently nitrogen is chosen, if it was not, the armature would actually WELD inplace because of the amount of current going through the pieces would initially melt and vaporise metal, then at the end likely fuse them...

So a large pressurised gas is shoved behind the projectile which gets it moving quite rapidly, at which point the armature hits the conductive area, it completes the circuit where the cap's discharge. This energy is turned into a heavy magnetic field which due to laurentz's force actually propels the device forward....


The speed of the armature when it hits the end of the barrel, is determined in effect by the amount of current, mass of the armature, magnetic properties, and the distance the two rails are apart....

Now, the whole time the projectile is accelerating, is actually is conducting MASSIVE amounts of energy... This energy basically destroys the two rails creating flying sparks of metal every where...


Electricity is noisy and smokey, you better believe it...

Rail guns are good times.... though very deadly...


There may be so error in my electric/magnetic/physics description, i do materials engineering (design the rails and armature etc) so im not too up and up on that end of it...



Deffinatly real though, my group actually watched their releases a handful of times and giggled

and for the record, their cap banks are HUUUUUUUUGE... scary huge...

 

[Busa1166]

Thats what I love about people, never stop thinking of a new way to kill something Maybe they can find a humanitarian use for the tech keep up the good work


Be nice if we could use this is as a way propelling a hayabusa what ever it was it seemed or was made to look fast

 

[BusaWizard]

That's a lot of energy.

 

[ogre]

it's pretty humanitarian if you ask me. no risk of premature detonation, no carbon compounds released into the atmosphere due to discharging large weapons or explosives, cheaper to use, no heavy metals polluting the environment. i'd say that's all pretty good stuff. i like the "rods from god" concept more. think tungsten telephone pole dropped from space. all the effect of a tactical nuke, none of the fallout.

 

[Goatkart]

it's pretty humanitarian if you ask me. no risk of premature detonation, no carbon compounds released into the atmosphere due to discharging large weapons or explosives, cheaper to use, no heavy metals polluting the environment. i'd say that's all pretty good stuff. i like the "rods from god" concept more. think tungsten telephone pole dropped from space. all the effect of a tactical nuke, none of the fallout.

LOL, i was talking with someone about that old plot just yesterday...


In either case, your actually right on a lot of levels.... when you consider ships are more and more "clean power" in some way, either nuclear, or more recently even hybrids...

Tie that into the accuracy of these weapons.... One of many tests i recall was on the scale of hitting a 5-10 meter target at 200 naut miles (might be a fudge in the numbers there).... It of course annihilated the target...

however what it means is, a single ship can cover gigantic spaces and offer tactical support in enormous areas...


Its not about finding new and interesting ways to kill ourselves.

Anytime we can do the same amount of kinetic damage without explosives or accelerants, it means we can minimise collateral damage to innocents and infrustructure...

and thats always a good thing...

 

[Commuta_Busa]

ummm did the projectile hit anything?

 

[Goatkart]

yeah, there is a large target down range, you can kinda see it if you look at about 1:50ish

Better image of projectile

 

[djsin]

The smoke and sound makes me think its fake. I know caps(capasitor) can make a loud sound when exploding. But this is suppose to be magnitic.

well at those speeds your breaking the sound barrior wich would make a few booms for sure

 

[SHIRO HAYABUSA]

Thats what I love about people, never stop thinking of a new way to kill something Maybe they can find a humanitarian use for the tech keep up the good work


Be nice if we could use this is as a way propelling a hayabusa what ever it was it seemed or was made to look fast

it's pretty humanitarian if you ask me. no risk of premature detonation, no carbon compounds released into the atmosphere due to discharging large weapons or explosives, cheaper to use, no heavy metals polluting the environment. i'd say that's all pretty good stuff. i like the "rods from god" concept more. think tungsten telephone pole dropped from space. all the effect of a tactical nuke, none of the fallout.

I can't find the publication now but I read somewhere that considerations of application include geo orbital launches (launching something from the ground upward into orbit around the earth). Another mention was installing them on the moon to project mined/excavated materials towards earth. Spend 10 minutes searching electromagnetic railgun you find some interesting stuff.

 

[SHIRO HAYABUSA]

Here's a few more if interested:

 

[Fastfrog007]

This energy basically destroys the two rails creating flying sparks of metal every where...

So, does it need a rebuild in between each shot? Are the rails easy in easy out set up?

 

[Goatkart]

This energy basically destroys the two rails creating flying sparks of metal every where...

So, does it need a rebuild in between each shot? Are the rails easy in easy out set up?

not a rebuild between shots no..

It truly depends a lot on many factors, the energy being pushed through the gun, the quality of the rails, the amount of friction between the armature and the rails, etc... The magnetic forces alone in some cases can be enough to damage the rails into needing repair before the electricity actually degrades the rails themselves enough to require it.... There is just a lot of design work going on in the rails themselves, let alone the projectiles and the gun as a whole...

Which is why myself, as a materials guy is involved...

However, it is certainly one of the technological hold backs for this type of system, as well as a few others...


That said, depending on the complexity of the design, the rails are actually "relatively" simple to remove and reinstall... As with all things, there are plenty of qualifiers here as well.. Obviously disassembling something ship size is quite different than the scale i work on...

In the end though, this is all part of the point of the research into the technology, to push up its service lifetime to something manageable.


......as well as to make a big boom

 

[Busa1166]

I can't find the publication now but I read somewhere that considerations of application include geo orbital launches (launching something from the ground upward into orbit around the earth). Another mention was installing them on the moon to project mined/excavated materials towards earth. Spend 10 minutes searching electromagnetic railgun you find some interesting stuff.

I think I saw the same article looked pretty cool was a giant launching ramp to be able to send satellites into orbit without the use of rockets.

 

[Ben Busafied]

uh, not good for a moving target though eh?

 

[ogre]

good for a moving target, just not one that's constantly changing direction. so a missle it could hit, a plane, possibly, but a moving tank, i dunno. depends on the range i suppose, i mean 7000+ mph is pretty fast. consider that it would cover about two miles per second, anything at fairly close range would only have to be led a minimal amount. you wouldn't have to worry much about arc, or the drop of the projectile either. and effect would be nearly instant, you could re adjust for a follow up shot quickly.