What are some of the key differences in how they function and what that means in practical applications?
In: Technology
Railguns have two conducting rails as the name implies and the projectile forms a bridge between them and slides down the rails and shoots out the end. Railguns require huge currents and the rails take a lot of damage from the projectile sliding down them at high speed, the electric current arcing to the projectile, and the insane repelling force between the two rails. This is why railguns have tons of bolts running down their length, they want to rip apart. Any projectile will work, if its not conductive then you put it on a conductive sled that drops off after launch.
Coilguns use a coil of wire to create a magnetic field to push the projectile out. In the non-weaponized sense we generally call these solenoids and they’re used all over the place, its just a small coil that causes a little metal pin to pop out. Now if you take that coil, make it bigger, put a lot more power through it, and let the pin shoot out you’ve got yourself a coilgun! Coilguns don’t need super high levels of current as you can use more voltage and more windings to generate the higher magnetic field rather than just moar current like a railgun which has no windings. Coilguns do require magnetic projectiles (or something that can have magnetism induced in it) which limits the options, but they also have the advantage of not trying to rip themselves apart or wearing significantly with each shot.
At the end of the day, making a strong/efficient railgun just requires a big ass capacitor bank, two conductive rails held together nicely, and a conductive projectile. A coilgun is a fair bit more challenging to make an efficient coilgun and you start needing staged coils and careful timing to sync up and get your projectile to high speed. DARPA made a 45 stage coilgun mortar and only managed to pull 22% efficiency out of it meanwhile the Navy’s Railgun is around 50% making it a much better use of power
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