Hey there,
I've been looking for capacitors that would be ideal for powering a Railgun. I need about 1.5k Amps running through my circuit to produce a powerful enough magnetic field to launch the projectile. At first I was thinking to put about 10 250V capacitors at about .5mF each in series so that the voltage would add up (and so would the amps I = V/R) but then I realized that the ESR of each capacitor would also add up, cancelling the increase in current. I'm now thinking of putting them in parallel to increase the amps (I = dq/dt or I = C*dv/dt). However, I'm afraid that passing such an enormous current through these capacitors will simply fry them. I only need the current for about 0.05 seconds. Is there a way I can find out the maximum amount of amps that can run through a capacitor?
I've been looking for capacitors that would be ideal for powering a Railgun. I need about 1.5k Amps running through my circuit to produce a powerful enough magnetic field to launch the projectile. At first I was thinking to put about 10 250V capacitors at about .5mF each in series so that the voltage would add up (and so would the amps I = V/R) but then I realized that the ESR of each capacitor would also add up, cancelling the increase in current. I'm now thinking of putting them in parallel to increase the amps (I = dq/dt or I = C*dv/dt). However, I'm afraid that passing such an enormous current through these capacitors will simply fry them. I only need the current for about 0.05 seconds. Is there a way I can find out the maximum amount of amps that can run through a capacitor?
