What kind of projectiles are used in a railgun?

In some hypervelocity research projects, projectiles are ‘pre-injected’ into railguns, to avoid the need for a standing start, and both two-stage light-gas guns and conventional powder guns have been used for this role.

How are the conductors arranged in a railgun?

A relatively common variant of this configuration is the augmented railgun in which the driving current is channelled through additional pairs of parallel conductors, arranged to increase (‘augment’) the magnetic field experienced by the moving armature. These arrangements reduce the current required for a given acceleration.

How does a plasma armature work on a railgun?

A plasma armature is formed by an arc of ionised gas that is used to push a solid, non-conducting payload in a similar manner to the propellant gas pressure in a conventional gun. A hybrid armature uses a pair of “plasma” contacts to interface a metallic armature to the gun rails.

What kind of power do you need for a railgun?

The high current required to power a railgun can be provided by various power supply technologies, such as capacitors, pulse generators and disc generators. For potential military applications, railguns are usually of interest because they can achieve much greater muzzle velocities than guns powered by conventional chemical propellants.

Do you need high voltage to make a railgun?

These are brief instructions on how to make a homemade railgun. In order to make this project, it is necessary to work with high voltages, so don’t even think about making a project like this unless you are familiar with electricity, especially capacitors. (ie. Don’t blame me if you hurt yourself)

How tall are the rails on a rail gun?

Rail Building Procedure: -Our first build used copper rails. we began with 1 completely misshapen rectangle and worked quite hard to make it into 2 identically-sized rectangular prisms. (and we failed) -they were 6 inches in length, .510 inches in height, and .370 inches in width each.

Why do you need air for a railgun?

This allows the energy in the capacitors to be discharged through the lightbulb. The air injection system (6) is required so that the projectile contacts the rails with some initial velocity.