In 1918, the principle of utilising an electromagnetic force to fire projectiles was discovered but focus on railguns have only been intensified since 2012, when the first weaponized rail gun was released by the US navy. Since then, the railgun has been believed to be a powerful weapon that will overshadow other conventional weapons. This investigation is to determine if railguns should replace conventional weapons in the future.
Electromagnetic railguns are long range weapons that fires projectiles (electrically conductive) with electricity. The current supplied to the rails which flows up one rail and down the other induce a magnetic field around both rails as shown in Figure 2. The direction of the magnetic fields are obtained using the …show more content…
The direction of force can be determined using the right hand palm rule. The design of the railgun is illustrated in Figure 2.
After much research, the U.S navy has a goal to deploy a 64 Mega joule cannon that will utilise tungsten slugs and fire targets with speeds around 5,800 metres per second, with 10 shots fired a minute. At this rate, the railgun will accurately strike a 5-metre wide target from approximately 200 nautical miles away.
Conventional weapons generally require a propellant to fire a projectile to inflict damage either by piercing or by explosion of the target.
Some examples of conventional weapons would be cruise missiles or rifles which use a chemical propellant (explosion of gun power to fire a bullet and burning of liquid fuel to propel the missile) to gain high velocities until the point of impact. The principle of conservation of momentum explains the projection. As the initial momentum is zero, the backward momentum of the chemical propellant is equal to the forward momentum of the missile/bullet, resulting in zero final momentum. The arguments in favour of and against utilising railgun in place of conventional weapons are discussed in this
Electromagnetic railguns are long range weapons that fires projectiles (electrically conductive) with electricity. The current supplied to the rails which flows up one rail and down the other induce a magnetic field around both rails as shown in Figure 2. The direction of the magnetic fields are obtained using the …show more content…
The direction of force can be determined using the right hand palm rule. The design of the railgun is illustrated in Figure 2.
After much research, the U.S navy has a goal to deploy a 64 Mega joule cannon that will utilise tungsten slugs and fire targets with speeds around 5,800 metres per second, with 10 shots fired a minute. At this rate, the railgun will accurately strike a 5-metre wide target from approximately 200 nautical miles away.
Conventional weapons generally require a propellant to fire a projectile to inflict damage either by piercing or by explosion of the target.
Some examples of conventional weapons would be cruise missiles or rifles which use a chemical propellant (explosion of gun power to fire a bullet and burning of liquid fuel to propel the missile) to gain high velocities until the point of impact. The principle of conservation of momentum explains the projection. As the initial momentum is zero, the backward momentum of the chemical propellant is equal to the forward momentum of the missile/bullet, resulting in zero final momentum. The arguments in favour of and against utilising railgun in place of conventional weapons are discussed in this