Week 2

Week 2

More research and calculations

     Throughout the second week, our time was devoted to furthering our understanding of the underlying principles of rail gun technology. We amassed various equations defining the movement of the projectile and various properties of the rail system, and even more equations to connect the former ones. More YouTube videos on successful rail guns were watched.

     With the equations in hand, we defined what mass we were going to try to project. Since we want to use rail guns for transportation, we decided that we wanted to build the rails on a toy train track and have it move a train from the set down the track. So, we measured the mass of the train and set off to figure out what kind of current we would need for such a task.

Calculation of desired current and potential capacitance (was ultimately incorrectly calculated)

      Once we determined the amount of current we would need to send through the rails to get the train to move, we started looking at methods of getting such large amounts. Ultimately, we decided upon using an array of capacitors for rapid discharge.

      We obtained four 53000microfarad capacitors that ran at 25 volts, and ran several tests and calculations to determine the viability of these capacitors. For equipment deficiencies, we weren't able to see the exact amount of current that they discharged; we didn't have a ammeter that would withstand 100+A of current. We charged the capacitors, and let them gradually lose charge as opposed to discharging them, and used the voltage at specific times data to calculate the internal resistance of the capacitors, and to check the capacitance. It turned out that these capacitors were defective due to their age, and we scrapped them.

Calculation of internal resistance and capacitance of capacitor bank 1