Constructing a Large Railgun: Seeking Input

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the construction of a large railgun, exploring design considerations, power sources, and technical challenges. Participants share insights on materials, energy storage, and the mechanics of railgun operation.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant is considering using a ceramic barrel with rifling to reduce corrosion on the rails and questions whether this would affect the Lorentz force acting on the projectile.
  • Another participant suggests that railgun designs typically utilize capacitors for power due to their ability to release energy quickly, cautioning about the dangers of capacitors even after disconnection.
  • Concerns are raised about the feasibility of powering a railgun directly from lithium-ion laptop batteries, with suggestions that a collection of batteries could be used to charge capacitors instead.
  • A participant questions the practicality of rifling in a railgun barrel, suggesting that it may not serve a purpose if the barrel is merely a protective tube for the rails.
  • There is a comparison made between railguns and coil guns, with a note that railguns may be more complex to construct.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the use of rifling in railgun design and the appropriate power sources, indicating that multiple competing perspectives remain without consensus.

Contextual Notes

Participants have not fully resolved the implications of using a ceramic barrel with rifling, nor have they reached a definitive conclusion on the best power source for a railgun.

Illumagnocity
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Just recently started toying around with this idea. and was looking for some good input from anyone more experienced in this area. I am currently working on a much smaller railgun but I plan on working on this larger one.

I am working with some others on this project I am more of the builder/ designer
a few questions i wanted to ask were.

If I were to fashion a ceramic barrel(trying to reduce corrosion to the rails) with rifling would that impeed on the lorentz force for the projectile.

could any current lithium ion laptop batteries power such a device if enough were gathered.


leaving this as an open discussion I will be posting my results on youtube after the first prototype is complete.
 
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All the rail gun designs I've ever seen are always powered by capacitors. They can be charged slowly but can release the energy very quickly. Bewarned, capacitors can be very dangerous because they can still shock you after the power source has been disconnected. You should either build the circuit so you can drain the capacitors by shorting them with a resistor or wait a sufficiently long time for the leakage current to do it for you. You can buy large ones online or you might be able to scavenge some larger ones from a few power supplies.

To power it directly from a battery I think you would need a very small rail gun or some very big batteries. You definitely don't want to short out large batteries so I wouldn't recommend putting them in series with the rail gun.

If you are powering it from a capacitor you can power it from just about any collection of batteries that has the right voltage. You might want to make sure that they charge slowly (over a few seconds) so they don't hurt the batteries.
 
Illumagnocity said:
If I were to fashion a ceramic barrel(trying to reduce corrosion to the rails) with rifling would that impeed on the lorentz force for the projectile.
Not clear what you're describing here. How can you rifle the barrel on a rail gun? Are oyu just talking about a tube in which to house the rails, like to protect them from weather? If so, rifling does not seem to serve any purpose.
 
Railguns are a more difficult weapon to create than say a coil gun which utilizes a coil of wire with a current running through it to generate an magnetic field which would propel a ferous projectile at high speeds
 

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