Flame-throwers

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

I'm in the process of writing a book (hopefully it'll be published some day)

I wish to have a character use a flamethrower.

so... I've a question for the collective intellect.


given the following assumptions, how much burn time would the tanks have? and what would be the ideal fuel?


assumption 1 (tech level) - a well equipped garage.
assumption 2 (know how) - someone who knows what they're doing.


the tanks are roughly the size of a paintball gun's hopper (or a water-bottle for those unfamiliar)

thanks a bunch :smallbiggrin:

[TheThan]

Most WWII era flamethrowers use large double tank backpack rigs, which means a few gallons at least. A gallon is 3.78 liters to those not using imperial standard . So I’d imagine you wouldn’t really get that much use out of it. Depending on how big the “hopper” is that is.

The type of propellant you’re using determines a lot of factors. For example if you’re using compressed gasses, you can get away with a lot more fire for it’s size, than if you were using non compressed fuel (gas, diesel, kerosene etc). also weight is a concern, liquids tend to be pretty heavy, so the more you carry, the faster you'll fatigue.

*not a fire bug*

[NikitaDarkstar]

Yhea, sorry but unless you're writing a sci-fi you won't get anything out of a flamethrower that size, you'd be better of just making a molotov cocktail.

As for the rest TheThan pretty much covered it, and I'm sure google can help you figure out what you want to do. just google "how to make a flamethrower"

[big teej]

I was attempting to finagle a Hand-Flamer (ref. warhammer40k) into it.... but it seems that'd stretch things too much, which is unfortunate.

oh well, I guess I'll have to find another application for my "burn heretic" character.

[Hattish Thing]

Flame-throwers would be an interesting weapon in D&D. I can imagine a gnoome with a flamethrower! Muahaha! :smallwink:

[Tebryn]

What do you call Flaming Hands?

[Comrade]

I saw this and was totally expecting this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nknAzQPHE).

[Mando Knight]

The fuel, whatever it is, is probably some kind of liquid hydrocarbon, and an incompressible assumption is likely. For burn time, well, that partially depends on how you design the system. You can generally choose the pump pressure, which for a fixed nozzle and an incompressible flow will also generally set the exit velocity and thus both the range and the mass flow rate.

Without running any calculations, I'd expect you'd get a good few seconds of burn, which would be enough to at least ignite a couple heretics.