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Re: Plasmagun/railgun for Stelarate

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:24 pm
by Andrew Haynes
For the area around the electrodes only charged air ions and free electrons will be the only things that will experience the force, this force will only effect the plasma that is contained in the arc.
But the question is there any data or formula that predict the thickness of the arc at different gas pressures and current?
Type of off topic but 12v,1a is enough to produce noticeable result with salt water, because the force is over the volume, the reason why I asked the question is that the volume of a arc at atm is small, hence I want to see the ballpark to aim for.
To help study it's effect at atm pressure, I was going to use a chemical reaction to raise the tempture up to 2000-3000K and instead of a solid state switch, send the 1% plasma charge density as a ball,blob,pulse or lump pass the sparkgaps

Re: Plasmagun/railgun for Stelarate

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:50 pm
by Dennis P Brown
An air arc is a very complex affair - issues of current pressure, water vapor, condition of your circuit, electrodes and many other issues will cause the arc core to vary. Try searching via google and read any technical papers on the subject relative to arc size/diameter. That isn't a topic I'd think is amiable to calculation using straightforward equations - you will have to do the experiments and measure those parameters, if you need them.