Merged System of a Railgun and Coilgun

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Gue

New Member
Could it be possible that a railgun and coilgun be merged together into a "super" weapon using concentrated electromagnetic energy with conventional chemical energy from an explosion as an "extra push" to the projectile?

The theory of a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (Mac) and Magnetic Accelerator Gun (Mag) is one of those theories that I feel like I should devote my life into. I'm a high school junior right now, and am thinking about devoting my life to electromagnetic studies. My perspective might change on my way there, but I'm sure I will settle into a relative field. Electromagnetic is such a wonder for me. My inspiration for this is my dream of creating a magnetic field that could really repel a projectile by harnessing the magnetic energy of the "basic" theory of the force of attraction and repel in atoms.

Even today in the present, people are questioning on how far technology could go. Is there a limit to technology? That's a question that most of the people in here in this world today are asking and thinking about. We should never know if we should never try. Technology is the baby, and we are the mother. We were born into this world with almost no special ability, but two. And those two special abilities are to experience and learn.

If scientists can make an atomic bomb, which can generate a strong electromagnetic wave, which means that a magnetic accelerator gun and cannon could be made. WE needed to make a long reach for the stars right now; now or never. What if a huge meteorite came alone and smashes us to bit? We needed a cannon that is so powerful that it can actually penetrate a believed-to-be-indestructible "foreign" meteorite and shear it to little pieces for our ozone layer to get rid of. Anything is possible with the fast growing technology of our days. "Sitting duck" won't help; because a large meteorite was predicted to crash into our planet in the year of 2025 (I believed it is 2025 or 2027. I forgot the actual predicted year. Sorry.) Either ways, we should get similar cannon by then, just to be sure.

This is my first post and I'm already in love with this website. Most of the people that I look up to are those who served in the US Army. They risked their life to save us from harm. They protected what is right. They suffered much. They went into the army as an ordinary person and came out as a hero to all, a hero of great bravery, strength, wills, passion, and personality, and so, they are my heroes. I will honor them as I live on until the day I'm gone.

Those who are in Iraq at this moment should be remembered. I wish you luck and pride!

Have a comment or just a thought? Post it here.

Once again, I want to thank those fine ladies and gentlemen who are in the US Army. May pride be your heart and peace be your hands. Good lucks.
 
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EnigmaNZ

New Member
Welcome to Defence Talk Gue. An inquiring mind, I was the same at 17, favourite books were science related "the Eagle Book of how it Worked" was a favourite. Today I am 50+ and just as inquisitive lol.

"a railgun and coilgun be merged together" When I first read this I thought, whats the point, but thinking it out I came to this conclusion. Forgive me if i am rusty in areas. One of the problem with railguns is at the moment you dump in the current, the amature is sitting there inert for a moment, and the high current passing through it as it bridges the rails begins to weld it to the rails. One of the problems with coilguns is lining up those individual coils and getting them to fire at precisely the moment the amature whizzes past. So combine the 2, use a coil to impart initial acceleration to the amature then switch to the rails to amplify. Both problems solved, at least to my untrained mind.

"conventional chemical energy from an explosion" This could be at the start instead of the coil, to get the amature moving, or it could be used as a explosively pumped flux compression generator. This from Wikipaedia - An EPFCG package that could be easily carried by a person can produce pulses in the millions of amperes — tens of terawatts, exceeding the power of a lightning strike by orders of magnitude. Whew. So maybe in your railgun, you load the amature and whatever it is pushing, load your EPFCG into a breech like a howitzer, fire the device, the explosion pushes against a free piston compressing a gas with is released at the precise moment to accelerate the amature, like in a gas gun, as the explosion continues it generates a massive current that is channelled directly or through a buffer to the rails, which accelerates the amature to the final launch velocity. Maybe the only way in the near future to get such power levels mobile.

"questioning on how far technology could go" - I seem to recall back in about 1890, that the scientific adviser to the President considered, that further advancement was impossible as everything that could be invented, had been invented. What a closed mind. They are still around Gue.

By the way, does Gue stand for Gaussian Unitary Ensemble, and no, I don't understand that stuff.

Have to answer the rest in a future edit hehe, my brain is overtaxed :) again welcome.
 
G

Gue

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
Sorry, I've been quite busy lately and couldn't post anything till now. Gue is actually my name. Cool name isn't it?

Yes, a railgun with Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator (EPFCG) could actually work! The explosion could set the amature into a great initial start. Then as the blast continues to grow, the generated eletromagnetic pulses of the massive current would multiply the amature's speed. Hopefully it could reach at least 1/4 of the speed of light :D

Whew, check out this web site.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244593,00.html

The Navy just tested a High-Tech Railgun in Virginia.
This railgun could pack the punch of a Tomahawk without a warhead installed to the front. The projectile fired that Tuesday weighed only 3.2 kilograms! This railgun operated on electricity only. Imagine a installed EPFCG in it. I think it could actually shoot to the stars! Maybe on its way there, it could blow up a small meteorite or two. Yay! How cool is that? Awesome!

I'm thinking of joining a team of engineer in the California area. Hopefully it is near the capital. I heard from my history teacher that there're teams in the United States that are building a railgun. I hope I could get into one in my senior year. Right now I am still looking for a group :p

Railgun rules!
By the way, it had the Navy brass smiling, heheh.
 
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eckherl

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Gue said:
Sorry, I've been quite busy lately and couldn't post anything till now. Gue is actually my name. Cool name isn't it?

Yes, a railgun with Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator (EPFCG) could actually work! The explosion could set the amature into a great initial start. Then as the blast continues to grow, the generated eletromagnetic pulses of the massive current would multiply the amature's speed. Hopefully it could reach at least 1/4 of the speed of light :D

Whew, check out this web site.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244593,00.html

The Navy just tested a High-Tech Railgun in Virginia.
This railgun could pack the punch of a Tomahawk without a warhead installed to the front. The projectile fired that Tuesday weighed only 3.2 kilograms! This railgun operated on electricity only. Imagine a installed EPFCG in it. I think it could actually shoot to the stars! Maybe on its way there, it could blow up a small meteorite or two. Yay! How cool is that? Awesome!

I'm thinking of joining a team of engineer in the California area. Hopefully it is near the capital. I heard from my history teacher that there're teams in the United States that are building a railgun. I hope I could get into one in my senior year. Right now I am still looking for a group :p

Railgun rules!
By the way, it had the Navy brass smiling, heheh.
Click to expand...
Some say that the technology will be there to actually get the power source compact enough to place on MBT`s by the year 2015, bore diameter would be around 140mm. The U.S, Germany, UK and France have worked in the past on this project, the U.S has played around with it since the Eighties.
 
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DoC_FouALieR

New Member
Hello there!
The current (! what a pun!) problem with railgun is rather concerning the rails itselves than the initial impulse of current, because after every shot, rails are damaged since the efforts involved by the current and the friction of the projectile are very strong. So you need to replace them after a few shots.
The use of supra-conductor materials as rails solves the problem of heat generation due to current, but adds complexity, and the problem of friction by the projectile still exists.

I think that High Energy Weapons like lasers are going to be fielded before railguns.
 
G

Gue

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6
Hello there:)

I hope they would fixed those problems with the railgun in the near future. I'm really excited to see those weapons in action. I think that super-heated plasma would fit very nice into railgun as long as it don't leak out ahead of the projectile. Maybe there would be a 100-feet long railgun in the future that could shoot up to 400 miles away in 5 minutes. That would be an incredible average speed of 7040 feet per second on impact! So far, the Navy electromagnetic railgun’s projectiles will cover 290 miles in six minutes—initially traveling 8,200 feet per second and hitting their target at 5,000 feet per second.

Check out this article on the Navy Railgun.
popsci.com/popsci/technology/generaltechnology/64669aa138b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

And also check out today's amazing technologies on
popsci.com
 
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