From what I can tell, the way that electric armor works is that when a projectile penetrates the outer panel, which is connected to the ground wire, falls back to the back panel, connected to the hot wire, at the speed of electricity, where the projectile connects with both of them and is arc welded into plasma/debris, which then bounces off the hard armor behind the panels. This seems like a relatively simple concept, but so far its only been tested on tanks as experimental armor (as far as we know). The real question is if this could be compacted into deflecting small arms fire with the armor being worn by an individual, using a suit that has a light enough battery to carry in it while still providing enough power to melt the projectiles. If this is possible, it would be less like larpy power armor and more like a HEV suit that reduces damage when it has enough power. The rest of the features are another topic, but if its this simple, it seems like someone in his garage could make at least an example of this working.
Electric reactive body armor
This is a really interesting topic, but how much battery can one dude carry on him for a welder? do man-portable electric welders even exist?
Also, what would be ther best filler material to put between the electrode plates? best metal for the plates? thickness?
How much energy does it take to melt a single bullet?
what happens if the melted bullet connects the two plates and they melt together?
I think this technology's best application will be a railgun tank. Railguns in the field are juuuust starting to become feasible, but we'll see them as ship guns and stationary artillery first, then an SPG, then perhaps a tank(it'll probably be more like a infantry fire support vehicle, taking the role of the stryker dragoon). A railgun tank would be kinda like the abrams but without most of the armor, same two turbines running generators, a huge capacitor bank, and lots of fuel. This thing will drink gas even faster than the abrams, because gas is also your gunpowder. However, you get a railgun; you can shoot the same projectile much faster and further than before. This kind of standoff range can be decisive. Another thing to consider: torque. Electric engines are bi-directional and very torque-y, making them very suitable for tanks, which need to be able to forward/reverse a few feet as fast as possible. This electric armor is just icing on the cake.
railgun tank vs conventional tank:
You are forgetting the biggest problem with rail guns: barrel life. Those things will shoot themselves out in only a dozen or so shots so unless the rails are easily replaced and cheap to produce it still has a bit of a way before being practical.
Interesting idea, could potentially mean that there will be some sort of ammunition that will have an extremely high melting point that will be meant to suck up as much energy as possible. Maybe layer of the APFSDS round being made of volfram?
It had no intention of providing ballistic protection. The HEV suit was meant for hazardous environments, such as extreme radiation and cold.
Although we have been over the power armour question a thousand times here and the answer is still the same, we lack batteries that are energy dense enough to actually feed a suit of power armour and the current leading edge of battery technology, Lithium Ion, would be extremely dangerous to put on the back of a soldier since the tiniest penetration would mean a very rapid discharge of all the cells and a pretty big explosion. Putting a nuclear reactor on the back of a soldier is also questionable.
The HEV suit explicitly states ballistic protection and reactive armor systems enabled during the HL1 boot sequence actually.
Now this is some real future shit. Step aside, energy shields - the soldier of tomorrow is finally getting a way to shrug off bullets that doesn't need to run on fucking magic.
I'm no welder, but I've heard of car batteries being used as power supplies for arc welding, so carrying enough power to run this kind of thing is probably not too outlandish.
Remember, the circuit in this kind of armour would be open by default - the incoming projectile closes the circuit by bridging the gap between the two charged plates, and in doing so it gets fried like a blown fuse. Even though the armour would be "on" while in use, it shouldn't actually be using any power at all except for at that one moment when a projectile penetrates it and bridges the gap between the two electrode plates.
Thinking about car battery welding got me wondering about the best way to power this kind of armour, and since it would require a way to supply a large amount of current in a very short amount of time, the answer should be the same as for any other pulsed power application, right? Just use capacitors. Then it hit me: why bother powering the electrode plates from a capacitor bank, when the entire design of this type of armour is already a parallel-plate capacitor just waiting for somebody to notice it? Almost every question about how to best design this armour has already been asked and solved in the attempt to build better capacitors. Best filler material to put between the electrode plates? Whatever works well as a dielectric. Best metal for the plates? Whatever offers the highest capacitance. Thickness? Shit, I dunno, ask an electrical engineer, but the answer's gonna be "whatever thickness makes the capacitor more capacitor-y".
The circuit would be stuck open, and it would keep draining power until either: A) you run out of power, and then you're just a goof in a shiny suit, or B) the bullet just can't handle having any more energy dumped into it and it turns into plasma, or vapour, or just melts and trickles out from between the two plates, drips onto your thigh, and makes you wish you could return to the simpler days of having a bit of hot brass go down your shirt collar.
Fuck, I mean stuck closed.
Did it? I completed the game for the first time in January, I don't think I noticed that. I always assumed that it was meant for day to day work in Black Mesa and dealing with hazardous chemicals.
What happens after the first hit though? wouldn't it make the whole thing useless then?
The problem of power armor is lack of power source to power it on the go.
So let's make a power armor that requires EVEN more power as protection.
I will stick to ceramite and kevlar.