Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 10:05:20 +1200 (NZST) From: adou01@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Andrew Richard Doull) Subject: Battledress & Fuel Cells Somewhere along the line, my previous message to this digest got mangled about 10% into the document. If this message does not successfully get 100% through the second time, could people please mail me if they want the listing of battle dress designs which use fuel cells rather than batteries. Battle dress designs Someone asked me about battle dress designs using fuel cells. Here are the statistics for such designs. The following table gives design statistics identical to those in the basic Fire, Fusion & Steel book, extended up to TL 17. They are fully powered up to their maximum mass, which also gives their listed fuel consumption (However, see fuel consumption note below). Note in all cases except TL 10, excess power is generated which may be used for other purposes, but decreases the listed endurance. At TL 14+, doubling the size of the fuel cell provides enough input energy to power one shot every 10 phases of the meson gun listed on the David design submitted to this list earlier. The difference between the total mass and maximum mass (listed as ExcessM) may be loaded with any equipment desired, without overloading the frame or fuel cell. In fact, in TL 12+ designs, the fuel cell provides enough power to overload the frame up to 30%, but this also reduces fuel endurance. TL SM AV AM MW FCM End FC FM TM MM TMcr 10 0.23 4 0.042 0.0059 0.0118 10 0.0018 0.017 0.3014 0.42 0.1140 12 0.1 6 0.054 0.0032 0.01 10 0.0008 0.008 0.1721 0.23 0.1453 12 0.2 12 0.108 0.0056 0.01 10 0.0014 0.014 0.332 0.4 0.2105 14 0.05 8 0.036 0.0042 0.01 100 0.0008 0.084 0.18 0.3 0.2169 14 0.1 16 0.072 0.0081 0.01 100 0.0016 0.162 0.3444 0.58 0.2637 17 0.04 10 0.03 0.0050 0.01 100 0.0010 0.100 0.1808 0.36 0.2674 17 0.08 20 0.06 0.0098 0.01 100 0.002 0.196 0.346 0.7 0.3145 AV: Armour Value AM: Armour mass (tonnes) MW: Required MW (mw) FCM Fuel cell mass (tonnes) End Endurance (hours) FC: Fuel consumption (kl/hour) FM: Fuel mass (tonnes) TM: Total mass (tonnes) MM: Maximum mass (tonnes) TMCr: Total cost (credits) TL ExcessM ExcessMW 10 0.1186 0 12 0.0580 0.0043 12 0.068 0.0019 14 0.12 0.0108 14 0.2356 0.0069 17 0.1792 0.0125 17 0.354 0.0077 ExcessM: Excess mass allowed. ExcessMW: Excess mw allowance. Some actual designs These designs are optimised for their listed mass. TL SM AV AM MW FCM End FC FM TM MM TMcr 10 0.23 8 0.084 0.0124 0.0248 12 0.0037 0.044 0.3518 0.3518 0.1711 12 0.1 7 0.063 0.0102 0.0137 12 0.0026 0.030 0.2247 0.2247 0.2032 12 0.2 13 0.117 0.0125 0.0167 12 0.0031 0.037 0.3886 0.3886 0.2684 14 0.05 24 0.108 0.0112 0.01 48 0.0022 0.107 0.2928 0.2928 0.2872 14 0.1 40 0.288 0.0149 0.01 48 0.003 0.143 0.5585 0.5585 0.3606 17 0.04 42 0.138 0.0120 0.01 60 0.0024 0.143 0.3492 0.3492 0.3497 17 0.08 72 0.408 0.0168 0.01 52 0.0034 0.174 0.6895 0.6895 0.4532 These designs include: Mass MW MCr EMM 0.01 0.001 0.0005 Decoys (5) 0.005 0 0.05 WSV equipment 0.0001 0.0001 (12+) 0.005 Laser (3 km) 0.002 0.005 0.0012 Radio (30 km) 0.0002 0.001 0.0003 Total 0.0173 0.0071 0.0570 TL 10 armour instead uses an Image Intensifier scope. Electromagnetic masking is rated for 1 cubic metre, which exceeds the maximum volume the armour is ever likely to occupy. Because the laser communicator uses so much power, it is usual to have a weapon which uses input power equal to the 0.005 MW plus any excess MW, which prevents the laser communicator being used simultaneously. This is typically a squad level gauss weapon. Additionally, many designs will not use decoys, because of their expense and mass requirements. The listed number of decoys is individual decoys rather than one shot of decoys of every type. No Laser TL ExcessM ExcessMW Excess MW 10 0 0 0.005 12 0 0 0.005 12 0 0 0.005 14 0 0.0038 0.0088 14 0 0 0.005 17 0 0.0055 0.0105 17 0 0.0007 0.0057 Fuel Consumption Note Fire, Fusion & Steel does not give any rules concerning determining fuel consumption beyond the cryptic "Given in kl/hour per MW of output". There are at least two possible ways of handling this. * Fuel consumption is determined from maximum output only. This is the least realistic and most inefficient. However, for nuclear powerplants, it is probably sufficient. * Fuel consumption is determined from required output. This is the most efficient, and nearly realistic. Determine two states of fuel consumption, per 4 hour period. Firstly, determine the kl/hour consumed by all continuously running systems except that required for the transmission (Movement) and multiply by 4. This is the operational fuel consumption. Then determine the kl/hour consumed by the transmission (Movement) and multiply by 2. This is the travel move fuel consumption. Don't forget that up to two travel moves may be made per 4 hour period, also that travel move is computed at half maximum speed. Additional one shot systems such as anything requiring a homopolar generator may either be rated for maximum shots, and have fuel set aside for their use, or have a listed fuel consumption per shot. This is (input MJ /3600) * Kl/hour. * Twilight: 2000 implies that many powerplants, in particular, the fuel turbines used by the M1A1 tanks, consume large amounts of fuel even when idylling. Determine the minimum output from the minimum powerplant volume as listed, and determine minimum fuel consumption in kl/hour. Multiply by 4 to determine minimum consumption per 4 hour period. The following table gives the minimum consumptions for chemical power plants. Minimum TL Description MW Kl/Hour Kl/Period 3 Early steam 0.025 0.005 0.020 4 Steam 0.03 0.0045 0.018 5 Int Comb 0.015 0.003 0.006 5 Steam turbine 0.35 0.0525 0.210 5 Imp Int comb 0.004 0.001 0.004 7 Gas turbine 0.25 0.075 0.300 8 MHD turbine 0.60 0.12 0.480 The above battle dress designs have a fuel consumption based on their required power usage, not their powerplant maximum output. With point 3, use the following minimum fuel cell consumptions, which also gives fuel consumption for maximum output if the design is rated this way. Minimum TL Description MW Kl/Hour 7 Fuel cell 0.005 0.0015 12 Fuel cell 0.0075 0.001875 14 Fuel cell 0.015 0.003 16 Fuel cell 0.0175 0.0035