Quote:
Originally Posted by Minuteman37
Does Bronze posses the ideal characteristics to not melt the gun or are their better, but much more expensive options?
|
It's worth noting that specific heat isn't the only - or necessarily the most important - factor. Heat doesn't transfer in bulk instantaneously, so you should really be at least as concerned with the heat resistance of the material. This is inversely proportional to a material's heat conductivity, k. Furthermore, the contact time in the weapon should be excruciatingly small if the gun is reasonably sized and functional. So even if the heat tranfer rate is high, the time of transfer in the gun is similarly small. All in all, there is a very good chance that you really don't need - or necessarily want.
For comparison, bronze has a thermal conductivity of 16 W/m-K Titanium ranges between 19 and 23; carbide ceramics can be as low as 0.65, and silica aerogel (not suitable for other reasons) is only 0.017.