Look Ma!! It's a Dimpled Paintball!!!

[Automagrt666]

Also, rifling groves the bullets, you can't groove a paintball, it would just pop heh.

[sparktroop]

meant to post that in a different thread but hey.... it works he too

[leftystrikesback]

I think this thread died because everyone is stuck on the dimples, which have been shown to not work, when the real point is the surface roughness in general.

a paintball with some surface roughness should have less drag than a smooth paintball, given that it's reynolds number is high enough to be close to the transition between laminar and turbulent. The roughness can be very small and come in many forms, not just dimples.

Spin has nothing to do with why surface roughness decreases drag. I have never seen anything in fluid mechanics that ties the effects of roughness to spin, in fact I have seen evidence against it.



this shows a smooth sphere and a sphere with a small wire (or possibly a thin depression) running around the front of it. The sphere on the right has a turbulent boundary layer and much less drag.

The keys here is that the sphere is not spinning (see the rod coming out the back to keep it stable), the roughness is small relative to the size of the sphere, and it is located before the point where separation would normally occur (separation occurs around 80 degrees from the front of the ball)

With dimples there can be many problems including poor contact between the paint and barrel. I don't know why dimples wouldn't work well, but they are not the only way to go achieve decreased drag on a sphere. something as small as the seam of the paintball, or a rough patch at the front of the paintball could cause the boundary layer to be transitioned to turbulent.

Someone mentioned lines scored longitudinally and laterally on the paint, this could be a good solution and one easily tested.

I think that increasing paintball range using this technology is possible and that it shouldn't be given up on, as it seems like it has (until it can be explained satisfactorily why it is not feasible)

A good explanation of the fluid mechanics involved can be found here however keep in mind that the lift in his diagram is purely from the back spin shown on the golf ball.

[questionful]

I think that increasing paintball range using this technology is possible and that it shouldn't be given up on, as it seems like it has (until it can be explained satisfactorily why it is not feasible)

Exactly!

I was thinking that maybe Perfect Circle Paintballs could just swap the molds for their polystyrene shells, and try out various surface textures.

http://www.pcpaintball.com/index.html

[Ratt]

I think that increasing paintball range using this technology is possible and that it shouldn't be given up on, as it seems like it has (until it can be explained satisfactorily why it is not feasible)

...yeah? Well, you had better patent it, before "you know who" does...

[cyrus-the-virus]

...yeah? Well, you had better patent it, before "you know who" does...

Why would voldermort patent it?

[fnherstal]

what if the paintballs were sponge inside inpregnated with paint with the standard type shell would this not fly better


also since someone mentioned rail guns why cant a paintball air powered rail gun be made where the paint goes in one end and is propelled gradually all along the barrel by air pulses coming in vent holes and out the other end

[Surestick]

what if the paintballs were sponge inside inpregnated with paint with the standard type shell would this not fly better


also since someone mentioned rail guns why cant a paintball air powered rail gun be made where the paint goes in one end and is propelled gradually all along the barrel by air pulses coming in vent holes and out the other end

A rail gun doesn't use compressed air to accelerate the projectile: Wikipedia article on rail guns

Using several smaller burst of gas instead of one big one would be inefficient and probably require a prohibitively long barrel.

[fnherstal]

[QUOTE=Surestick]A rail gun doesn't use compressed air to accelerate the projectile: Wikipedia article on rail guns[QUOTE]


yes i know that
i was suggesting that concept of gradually accellerating the projectile all the way allong the barrel could be suitable

[Beemer]

Seven year old thread and seven months since last post.

Dont tell no one but there is a revolution on the way. First strike rounds are out and it looks like 50cal balls will try and be reintroduced to the game. :)

[SSP REAPER]

I don't know how the .50 balls will fare. Like many people have previously stated...Rap4 has been around for a few years with their .43 cal stuff and it is not really selling well. All depends on the marketing.

[fishmishin]

Yes, but RAP4 doesn't have the cut throat nature that we have come to know from one of the main backers of .50. I hope I am wrong, but I think it is going to take off.

[SSP REAPER]

Yes, but RAP4 doesn't have the cut throat nature that we have come to know from one of the main backers of .50. I hope I am wrong, but I think it is going to take off.

I will simply boycott buying that shtuff...

[LordOdin99]

For anyone that has seen the Mythbusters episode titled "Clean Car vs Dirty Car", they put surface texture to the test. They put especially looked at golf ball dimples. It seems that regardless of dimple size or object shape, it showed a significant reduction in drag and an improvement in aerodynamic performance. Golf balls traveled farther and cars got better gas mileage.

Perhaps this topic should be reevaluated and discussed further. Was distance ever considered in the original analysis or only accuracy? What about dimple size? Is the raw data still available? The original pics don't appear to be available anymore. I'd like to know in what way the dimpled paintballs didn't work.

[PaintballEngineer]

I can see the idea of a ball being gradually via multiple air ports being incorporated into TK's idea of a air injected marker.