Soden Rah
Gallente
EVE University
Ivy League
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Posted - 2011.06.21 23:15:00 -
[63]
the basic math which works for us is that appx 300MW gives 1 Newton force.
so take energy consumption of laser (in Jules),
multiply by efficiency factor (0.65 is a good number),
divide by duration (in seconds),
and then divide by 300 million,
to get beam recoil force in newtons.
working backwards, a 24,000N force would require 7,200 GW of laser power.
With efficiency of 65% (free electron laser theoretical max) you need to put appx 11,077 GW input power.
If the laser takes 95 GJ to activate then this an be achieved by having a sub second beam duration, which is physically sensible.
the total impulse for a 95 GJ laser with 65% efficiency will be appx 206 N/s
or a kick big enough to throw the average person backwards at about 2~4 m/s.
Note that as the duration of the impulse is assumed to be sub second in duration giving an ave force acting of 24,000N, if you were holding a laser gun capable of firing that much energy you would not only be thrown backwards at several meters per sec, but most of your bones would be broken as well....
Although the 33.25 GJ of waste heat your laser is putting out would probably be a bigger concern...
at those kinds of forces, its possible that the fragile mirrors might want to be cushioned, thus causing the turret to recoil, however the main structure would be able to absorb it without recoiling no problem.
Cooling causing the recoil doesn't make much sense as you want to radiate away as much heat as possible and retracting the turret reduces your surface area.
If your venting coolant in an open gas system (which would be much less efficient than the free electron laser I used for this example.) you would not vent it out the end of your turret for fear of damaging your optics, and destabilising your turrets aim.
Its not caused by pressure contraction due to venting coolant as the outside pressure is always zero.
If you are retracting it in so you can use conduction cooling then it should stay recoiled until just before firing the next shot to maximise cooling.
Basically you are stuck with fragile mirrors/optics and/or it looks cool...
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