My friend and I are thinking about building a rail gun, and after doing some research I have some ideas for how we're going to power it, but I definitely need some input/guidance.
As of now I'm planning on using a capacitor bank to power it, but I'm not completely sure of how I'm going to charge it. Currently I'm planning on plugging into a standard 120VAC wall outlet and running that through a rectifier. If I'm not mistaken, that should achieve about 85VDC.
I'm planning applying that over a 1F capacitor bank. Assuming that it is fully charged and takes 2ms to discharge, I'd ideally have a 42.7kA current to run through the rails.
If I've made any mistakes please let me know, otherwise I'm wondering if I should actually be able to start with these ideal values or if I'll have significant losses when I charge up the bank.
Any other (relevant) comments, criticism, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello,

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Bertus

 

Hello,

I got this in an e-mail:

I posted a thread to get some help on powering a rail gun for a project my friend and I are doing. I'm just wondering why you closed the thread and what exactly was innapropriate about it?

This is a family forum, we get people of all ages (from 8 to 88) and experience levels (from real beginners to experts).
We like to keep the things safe over here.

As answer to this I would ask you to read this thread:
Things that close your thread

Bertus