A set of mass accelerators are being designed and built in order to evaluate two engineering issues.

How does the diameter of the electrical wire used in the coils affect the acceleration of a projectile? Smaller diameter wire may result in a greater magnetic impulse, but the ability to carry a large amount of current may work counter to the creation of a magnetic pulse.

Does an increasing number coils significantly increase the acceleration of a projectile? An increasing number of coils beyond a certain point may actually provide little increase in acceleration since a projectile is in a magnetic field for increasingly shorter periods of time as its speed increases.

A set of nine mass drivers are being built according to the following matrix arrangement.

Wire Diameter

            
Number          Small            Medium             Large
of Coils 
 1                 A                B                 C
 2                 D                E                 F
 3                 G                H                 I

A modeling program ( available at: http://mgc314.home.comcast.net/opticoil_mm.htm ) is being used to guide in the design.

The mass drivers are being built with copper tubing used for providing water to ice makers in refrigerators and common electrical wiring. One set of capacitors provides 1,950,000 microfarads at 6 volts and second set of capacitors provides 10,000 microfarads at 350 volts.

There are two major challenges presently. One is obtaining SCR switches to control the resulting electrical pulses from collapsing magnetic fields. A second is how to measure the resulting acceleration of projectiles for the different models.