Railgun Test Fire

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER DAHLGREN, Va (Dec. 10, 2010) The Office of Naval Research Electromagnetic Railgun located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, fired a world-record setting 33 mega-joule shot, breaking the previous record established Jan. 31, 2008. The railgun is a long-range, high-energy gun launch system that uses electricity rather than gunpowder or rocket motors to launch projectiles capable of striking a target at a range of more than 200 nautical miles with Mach 7 velocity. A future tactical railgun will hit targets at ranges almost 20 times farther than conventional surface ship combat systems. (U.S. Navy video/Released)
WKBsays...

>> ^VoodooV:

ok...so I'm dumb, if it's electromagnetically propelled, what's with the explosion?


Good question. I'm not sure but I would assume that some electronics burned out causing the sparks and the smoke. Some of the sound could also be from the projectile breaking the sound barrier.

ButterflyKissessays...

It's plasma energy resulting in what tadd just said. It's a very intense buildup of electromagnetic energy onto the surface area of the bottom of the projectile. In the last clip on this video, the projectile lost structural integrity from the g-forces.

>> ^mtadd:

>> ^VoodooV:
ok...so I'm dumb, if it's electromagnetically propelled, what's with the explosion?

My guess would be its a result of the shockwave from the ballistic reaching supersonic velocity.

GeeSussFreeKsays...

I had a random guess as well. Most of the rail systems I am familiar with have a chamber the projectile travels down like the barrel of a gun. The main problem I have heard with this systems is the problem of bracing the projectile. How do you accelerate a metal object to super sonic speeds without it destroying the chamber via friction? Some had it in a jacket that was guided by a catapult like system on an aircraft carrier. This results in sparks, fires, and smoke because of the friction involved. I can't find details on this specific gun though beyond "they fired it".

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/bae-producing-scaleddown-rail-gun-naval-weapon-01986/

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/12/ap-navy-dahlgren-railgun-test-121010/

mxxconsays...

>> ^ButterflyKisses:

It's plasma energy resulting in what tadd just said. It's a very intense buildup of electromagnetic energy onto the surface area of the bottom of the projectile. In the last clip on this video, the projectile lost structural integrity from the g-forces.
>> ^mtadd:
>> ^VoodooV:
ok...so I'm dumb, if it's electromagnetically propelled, what's with the explosion?

My guess would be its a result of the shockwave from the ballistic reaching supersonic velocity.


actually you are wrong. what you see is projectile's casing falling off. see http://media.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/ORD_EM_Rail_Gun_7MJ_Shot_lg.jpg and http://www.dstl.gov.uk/news_events/images/railgun.jpg

kceaton1says...

I'll upvote for the simple fact that no-one added techno music to this!

I imagine the smoke is as said before: sound barrier, casing, plasma flow dynamics ("hot air"), etc... Plus whatever gets pwned at impact via kinetics.

And, just like the movie (just different words):
"There Will Be A Fiery Boom"

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