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The Inductrack magnetic levitation system, developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was studied for its possible use for launching rockets. Under NASA sponsorship, a small model system was constructed at the Laboratory to pursue key technical aspects of this proposed application. The Inductrack is a passive magnetic levitation system employing special arrays of high-field permanent magnets (Halbach arrays) on the levitating cradle, moving above a "track" consisting of a close-packed array of shorted coils with which are interleaved with special drive coils. Halbach arrays produce a strong spatially periodic magnetic field on the front surface of the arrays, while canceling the field on their back surface. Relative motion between the Halbach arrays and the track coils induces currents in those coils. These currents levitate the cradle by interacting with the horizontal component of the magnetic field. Pulsed currents in the drive coils, synchronized with the motion of the carrier, interact with the vertical component of the magnetic field to provide acceleration forces. Motional stability, including resistance to both vertical and lateral aerodynamic forces, is provided by having Halbach arrays that interact with both the upper and the lower sides of the track coils.

The stress of chemical strengthened glass was tested by ring-on-ring and Vickers hardness test. Glass with high compressive stress could be shown the high biaxial stress. The Vickers hardness only depended on depth of layer.

The mechanical design of the vacuum pumping systems for SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) DTL (Drift Tube Linac) and CCL (Coupled Cavity Linac) linac systems is summarized. Both vacuum systems were modeled to select the optimal pump configuration. The pressure history in up to 182 sub-volumes was analyzed in detail. Included in the model are time-dependent outgassing rates and pressure-dependent pump speeds for a variety of gas species. With this information, we solved for the pressure history during roughing and with turbo and ion pumps. The number and size of each pump were optimized to achieve the desired pressure with minimal costs. In the optimized design, directly mounted ion pumps were provided for six DTL tanks. For four CCL modules (each in length of 12-15 m), ion pumps with manifolds were selected. With all metallic surface outgassing, seal leakage and expected gas loads from all diagnostic devices taken into account, the designed systems can provide operating drift-tube pressure below 1.8x10 -7 Torr and CCL beamline pressures below 9.2x10 -8 Torr even under abnormal conditions. Details of the design and the modeling results are presented.

A traveling electric potential hill has been used to generate an ion beam with an energy distribution that is mass dependent from a monoenergetic ion beam of mixed masses. This effect can be utilized as a novel method for mass separation applied to identification or enrichment of ions (e.g., of elements, isotopes, or molecules). This theory for mass-selective acceleration is presented here and is shown to be confirmed by experiment and by a time-dependent particle-in-cell computer simulation. Results show that monoenergetic ions with the particular mass of choice are accelerated by controlling the hill potential and the hill velocity. The hill velocity is typically 20%–30% faster than the ions to be accelerated. The ability of the hill to pickup a particular mass uses the fact that small kinetic energy differences in the lab frame appear much larger in the moving hill frame. Ions will gain energy from the approaching hill if their relative energy in the moving hill frame is less than the peak potential of the hill. The final energy of these accelerated ions can be several times the source energy, which facilitates energy filtering for mass purification or identification. If the hill potential is chosen to accelerate multiple masses, the heaviest mass will have the greatest final energy. Hence, choosing the appropriate hill potential and collector retarding voltage will isolate ions with the lightest, heaviest, or intermediate mass. In the experimental device, called a Solitron, purified 20Ne and 22Ne are extracted from a ribbon beam of neon that is originally composed of 20Ne:22Ne in the natural ratio of 91:9. The isotopic content of the processed beam is determined by measuring the energy distribution of the detected current. These results agree with the theory. In addition to mass selectivity, our theory can also be applied to the filtration of an ion beam according to charge state or energy. Because of this variety of properties, the Solitron is envisioned to have broad applications. The primary application is for the enrichment of stable isotopes for medical and industrial tracers. Other applications include mass analysis of unknown gases (atomic and molecular) and metals, extracting single charge states from a multiply charged beam, accelerating the high energy tail in a beam or plasma with a velocity distribution, and beam bunching.