General > Discussion
Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
Darkpriest667:
no daniel he is referring to a process i mentioned earlier called electrothermal chemical
basically "some individuals" who shall remain nameless designed a projectile a sequence of some chemical (a gas) that if heated in a compressed area (say a cartrige or a tube as he said) creates a thermal chemical reaction that shoots the projectile... becauseof the amount of energy released by superheating the gas so quickly ....
I forgot the gas they used.
ghosta:
Bose-Einstein condensation? No! And I guess we should get the descriptions of the weapons understandable for people who havent studied physics!
I am talking about very fast rotating atoms/molecules. Shielded from the environment for not loosing too much Energy.
Darkpriest667:
totally different.. but i do have a question
you are heating it very rapidly how? and with what
DanielOR:
Darkpriest,
I believe you just very accurately described the conventional gunpowder weapon: powder burns really fast (oxidation), the reaction produces heat, which heats the resulting gasses. The pressure inside the cartridge, behind the bullet, suddenly is way higher than the 1 atmoshere in the barrel, in front of the bullet. Gas expands the only way in can, thus propelling the bullet down the barrel. Bang insues.
Doctor J:
I know we've wandered a bit off of particles, but i couldn't resist responding to this. It's actually been quite an interesting thread. Before i go into ETC, let's review what happens in chemically propelled bullets: The firing pin crushes the primer, the primer ignites the gunpowder, the gunpowder rapidly [can be seen as instantaneously] becomes pressurized gas pushing the bullet down the barrel. The limitation of this is that as the bullet begins moving down the barrel, the space behind it grows larger. As this volume increases, the pressure decreases dramatically. Reduced pressure means less acceleration available to the bullet - it reaches the highest speed it will reach well before it gets to the muzzle [the point at which the pressure is dispersed].
Electro Thermal Chemical is a proposed method of propulsion that aims to give greater muzzle velocity to our bullet. The bullet is the same, it is the case that is different. Rather than using chemical energy from exploding powder, the case is filled with some fluid [liquid or gas] that is electrically heated to the point of being plasma. The fluid could be anything [even water] but if you pick something that is also chemically active you reduce the amperage needed. Anyway here's the clever bit: rather than generating all this plasma instantaneously, it is an ongoing process that continues until the bullet has left the muzzle. By maintaining continuous pressure behind the bullet, the bullet continues to accelerate.
FWIW, the U.S. Army is currently doing research on electrically ignited gunpowder type cannons for the near term, for the same reasons. It is expected that within two decades they will field a 120 mm weapon for a tank that has penetration of twice what the current 120 mm cannon offers, w/o significantly increasing weight. The problem for us is that their method is also called ETC, leading to potential confusion down the road.
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