A railgun uses electricity to create a magnetic field that accelerates a projectile between two metal rails. However, the tremendous repulsive force requires frequent repairs and a large power supply, making them less practical than conventional shells. The US Army has invested in successful prototypes, but maintenance remains an issue. Peaceful applications such as space travel and nuclear fusion have been discussed.
The railgun, or more simply, the railgun, uses a magnetic field powered by electricity to accelerate a projectile. While the basic ideas behind building a railgun are simple, the firing of a typical railgun shell results in tremendous repulsive force. The result is that
the railgun needs to be repaired after nearly every shot, making them less practical than conventional shells. They also require a very large power supply, capable of delivering about a million amperes of current, making it difficult to build portable railroad guns.
A rail gun consists of two tightly anchored parallel metal rails connected to an electrical power supply. A projectile capable of conducting electricity is placed between the rails, completing the circuit. Being electrically charged, metal rails act like electromagnets, creating a magnetic field that circulates around each rail. One field moves clockwise around its rail, the other clockwise, creating a magnetic field in between which creates a net force parallel to the rails, away from the feeder. The projectile behaves like any charged wire in an electric field, experiencing a force perpendicular to the direction of the current and the direction of the magnetic field. This is called the Lorentz force.
When the electric current is very strong, the projectile, subjected to powerful forces, accelerates to the end of the railgun opposite the feeder and exits through an opening. The circuit, thus interrupted, interrupts the flow of electric current. The projectile must make physical contact with the rails during acceleration. If the projectile moves fast enough, the friction alone can seriously damage or even vaporize the rails, in the absence of strong enough materials. Also, if the rails are not securely attached to a stable surface, they can be pushed away by powerful energies within the railgun.
Many millions of dollars have been invested in railroad gun research by the United States Army and many successful prototypes have been developed, which possess very high muzzle velocities, on the order of 3.5 km/sec (2.17 mps), about 3 times faster than modern rifles. However, these designs require large power supplies and maintenance remains an issue. The US Navy has expressed interest in railway guns due to their non-explosive ammunition, but they have not come into common use. One proposed solution to the problem of rail gun wear is the idea of using very small projectiles accelerated to very high velocities, a design sometimes referred to as a needle rifle.
Railroad guns have also been discussed in the context of peaceful applications such as space travel. A very long railgun, or mass driver, could be used to accelerate payloads to escape speed at much lower cost than chemical rockets. One disadvantage is the high initial investment required to build such a mass driver. To create a mass driver that accelerates a projectile to escape velocity to a velocity acceptable to human passengers (~2g), a barrel of length ~50 km (30 miles) would be required. Another potential application of rail guns could be in the arena of nuclear fusion, where immense pressures and temperatures are needed to fuse atomic nuclei together.
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