SpudFiles

First of, I know flash suppressors are illegal, and so I will be calling it a plasma suppressor.
When a railgun is fired, the plasma emitted surounding the projectile becomes very problematic when trying to make measurments. I am looking for ways to extinguish or divert this plasma off the the side as quickly and in as short distance as possible.
For flash suppresors, I see two main designs, forward vents, and backward vents. Which would seem to work better in my application, if at all?
The forward vents seem like the plasma would just escape, and backwards vents seem like the Bernoulli effect would suck in air, to mix with the plasma.
When i say forwards and backwards, this is bacwards:


Why is the top uneven?
How do "vortex" suppresors work? seems it just spins it, causing it to spread.
perhaps backwards vents followed by forward vents?

the plasma emitted surounding the projectile becomes very problematic when trying to make suggestions

huh?
and is this a flash supressor or a muzzle break

I think he is trying to get rid of plasma as it might interfere with a chrony

Backwards could cancel out some recoil.
Forward would probably vent the plasma faster.

have you considered a magnetic plasma suppressor? a few of these with aluminum spacers to make it look like a flash suppressor should be very effective, as long as it was placed somewhat far from the rails, and the projectile isn't magnetic(shouldn't be, but I haven't looked at rail guns recently.

I am aware that I linked to a search, but I don't know his bore size!

the link is broken.
The projectile is .5" square.

This is for the railgun, recoil will not be a problem, the thing is massive.
The image is a flash suppressor.

oops. forget the link. If you used some neodymium disk magnets as baffles in a "silencer" type thing, only with a heavily perforated outer can, the magnetic forces would pull the plasma between the baffles where they could be cooled with some kind of metal wool or something.



Make sure you get plated magnets!

The magnetic drag on the projectile could be significant, especially at the ridiculous velocities you are most likely looking to achieve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_curre ... rent_brake

but since you have built a railgun, you know about that effect.

the affect is profound. If I put a hard disk platter on a table and swing the magnet above it, you can feel a large resistance, and the platter moves. Its actually difficult to draw a 1/2" Al rod across it.

Well a regular silencer design with a perforated can would disperse the muzzle blast well. The porting would disperse the gas faster, and not make it illegal as a silencer. Although even having washers and steel pipe could constitute preparing to make a silencer.

I think the forward porting would be better at stripping away the plasma quickly but still in the general direction of the chrony and the backward porting would disperse the plasma backwards, but away from the chrony. I think a combination, such as in the baffles of the pictured silencer, would suppress the most plasma.

It would be interesting to attempt the magnetic suppressor just to see how the plasma reacts to the fields. Maybe once your first set of rails corrodes, just put aluminum foil through for fun.

I plan on a break wire chornograph, My concern is the plasma being dense enough to conduct.

Here is what you can do. Extend the "barrel" (or what ever you want to call it for a railgun) a good long ways, and fill it with holes. Then glue a large piece of plywood to the end of the barrel, so that nothing that escapes the holes can continue forward.

If you don't have a barrel, then you can do a far more simple version. Depending on how accurate the projectile firing is, just fire it through several pieces of plywood, with small holes cut in them. Align the holes (maybe getting slightly larger as they go) so that the rail gun will fire straight through them all, and much of the plasma will expand out, and get deflected. This method is more effective the greater the distance between the sheets.
The concept is similar to that of a breakwater. What ever plasma makes it through the first hole starts to expand and billow out again, and the effect continues through each board.

I can make a diagram if this doesn't make sense.

that makes sense, I am considering it with metal sheets. Thanks