Re: Naval Railgun: Barrel Design or Power Supply?

From: Ross A. Finlayson (raf_at_tiki-lounge.com)
Date: 02/16/05 

Date: 15 Feb 2005 17:33:30 -0800

Instead of a railgun, you should use a coilgun. The coilgun or "linear
induction motor" style launcher is contactless, in that way there fewer
parts moving against each other at high velocities leading friction to
degrade them. If you use a plasma sheath from near the get-go in the
railgun then there is less control of the output velocity. So with a
coilgun it is easier to adapt it to a rapid rate-of-fire, obviating the
need for explosive rounds, for example in an Aegis Phalanx type system.

The velocity of the round can be varied by adjusting the amount of
power sent to it. There is probably less shock to the payload than of
explosive weapons of the same velocity, because the acceleration on the
payload is more constant with less impulse. Wedge it against the
ground and turn it up.

There would be some problems from that with barrel wave but some
gyroscopes could help with that, although they might drift the
compulsators (flywheels), if used, for man-portable devices.

Basically a subsonic rapid-fire coilgun is almost silent, with perhaps
the click and whine of the mechanism and capacitor voltage doubler
oscillator. Also the barrel doesn't heat or powder foul. The
projectiles would need to be self-rifling, or round balls for
simplicity of feed, it could use modular loaders. Think modular.

Also you need to soak it in water or mild acid, dunk it in mud, freeze
it, leave it on the dash of a car with its windows closed in the sun
for a couple days, microwave or herf it, drop it five meters onto
concrete, bury it back in tidal flat mud for a couple years, and then
be able to clean it in a steam shower and use it forthwith. I guess
I'm talking about an army coilgun instead of a navy railgun, not that I
have anything to do with either of those things.

Really the energy storage and conversion question is the critical one,
some of the switching electronics, you can cobble together the coilgun
for not much money. The electrical storage problem is one that arises
in many cases. I think a solution would be the nanocompulsator array,
very many small flywheels arranged for no rotational moment of inertia
beyond that of the enclosure. Another notion is the silicon technique
capacitor, EMP-hard components. Also a robust little hand-crank for
charging said power storage would be useful for extended recharge in
the field.

It's fair to say that military research has no value, that it's
destructive, and often wasteful and inefficient, and that budget cuts,
in the U.S., should come first from the bloated military, and a variety
of related corrupt and fraudulent programs hypocritically operating
under the umbrella of security, with the light of the example of Soviet
Russia militarizing itself out of existence. While that's so, research
and innovative development in itself _is_ the driver of economic
growth, particularly in this small world with finite resources:
research good, fire bad. Besides that, the coilgun is cheap and you
can mold its bullets over a stoked campfire.

The idea, of course, is to use the research into the question for
implementing the electromagnetic launch of hundred tonne pods to outer
space directly from Earth, for SCRATS: Safe, Cheap, Reliable Access to
Space.

Ross 

--
"Kibo destroyed that bigger than Dallas!"

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