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The Effect Of The Limiting Factor On The Speed Of Light-Gas Gun

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4.3 Design physics: The limiting factor on the speed of an air gun, fire arm, or light-gas gun is the speed of sound in the working fluid—the air, burning gunpowder, or a light gas. This is essentially because the projectile is accelerated by the pressure difference between its ends, and such a pressure wave cannot propagate any faster than the speed of sound in the medium. The speed of sound in helium is about three times that in air, and in hydrogen 3.8 times that in air. The speed of sound also increases with the temperature of the fluid (but is independent of the pressure), so the heat formed by the compression of the working fluid serves to increase the maximum possible speed. Spring piston airguns increase the temperature of the air in the chamber by adiabatic heating; this raises the local speed of sound enough to overcome frictional and other efficiency losses and propel the projectile at more than the speed of sound in the ambient conditions.
4.4 Impact profile: …show more content…

Obviously, a dense, narrow projectile will apply more pressure overall than a light and wide one. Looking at constant cross-sectional projectiles, researchers have recently begun to vary their projectiles' density as a function of length. Since the projectiles travel at a known velocity, changes in density as a function of length have a predictable relationship to the impact pressure applied as a function of time. With materials in a wide range of densities (from tungsten powder to glass microsphere) applied in thin layers, carefully made projectiles can be used in constant-pressure experiments, or even controlled compression–expansion–compression

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