because sometimes, I draw cool stuff rather than just cute/lewd.
Patrol frigate idea, most of the ship being railgun, capacitors and ammo. It's not really from anything really, just a fun design.
https://awoo.space/media/LPoH3uU4Z0ZLu-wt3FE
@Draekos As an engineer, I can't help but wonder how the ship would handle the recoil from firing, given that the cannon is off-center and would generate torque from the recoil.
@Felthry Finalization of the design would probably contain a heavier RCS layout, additionally a flaring from the right main engine (there's a pair in this design) would counter some of that initial spin. In my head this is one of those ships that needs to do serious heat venting between shots, so as long as you're not whipping crew around you're fine.
@Felthry ........ and the topview's canon is way more off-center than I'd intended. Didn't notice how far out it shifted while scribbling the design.
@Felthry I really do like those sort of questions though, I apply that kind of thinking to a lot of my design work, even if sometimes the answer is "it's cool, okay?"
@Draekos That's probably a good portion of why I like your art so much! You think things through like that.
Converting heat to usable energy directly is thermodynamically impossible, but it could potentially be used to preheat fuel? Hm. Interesting possibilities!
@Felthry yeah, it's been a little too long since my highschool physics classes.
Although would a railgun in a void actually have much kick? force is applied by magnetism, ideally your projectile stops contacting the ship in any way at trigger press.
@Draekos Yeah, but the magnetic force applies equally on the vessel as well! Newton's third law applies to all forces, not just those involving contact. (and besides, get right down to it and 'contact' turns into electromagnetic forces too) Given the mass of the projectile that looks like it would fire, I'd anticipate quite a lot of kick. Conservation of momentum!
@Felthry huh, good point.
And this is why I went with art rather than engineering. I have a passing interest, but I'd probably get someone killed accidentally by forgetting some really simple factor like that D:
@Draekos That's what simulation and testing is for! Trust me, most all engineers have made very, very stupid mistakes that didn't hurt anyone because they tested them in simulation first!
The first year of engineering school, they kind of drill it into your head(s). I still remember one thing they said a lot: "A doctor can only kill one person at a time. An engineer can kill thousands."
@Draekos Really drills it into you that you need to think hard about things, and test repeatedly to make sure it works. (fortunately, this is less of a major problem in my field, electrical engineering, than in say civil engineering)
@Felthry I feel that most likely there's a heat venting system right behind the railgun that takes the initial burst of heat and converts it into energy. Kinetically in a gyroscope? Or just an exaust thruster of some sort? We'd need to know more about how the gun actually works to be sure ^^
if you've looked at the comics I've done, I try to engineer solutions for stuff like "how would a character with wings wear clothes?" or "dragon spas would use lava? how would that work?"