The two powder tests lie stagnant for the moment, which their conditions have their merits amongst the boredom of flat data. I have cut a right turn and focused all my attention to building and programming the devices for the upcoming ICCF18 in Missouri. We've planned and commissioned functioning replicas of our US cells (gridlocked in tests at the moment). More information in that regard to come. 

Because my busy hands are turning wrenches, the powder cells rest comfortably in autopilot. We may need the down time to do some restructuring. 

R3: Oh what to Do?

R3's initial H₂ charging immediately delivered thrilling data, however the honeymoon was unfavorably short. This lulling trend has me scratching my head and glancing back at our protocol quite frequently as I try to change my tune; I've strictly adhered to step 4 (hydrogen loading) with no cooperation from the powder! I expected soaring powder resistance, but was unprepared to see pitiful loading such as this. I can think of several options, escorted by several questions. . .

1) It would seem obvious the issue boils down to the low powder temperatures - a snafu easily solved by cranking up the heater power! Barring passive oxide layers on the nickel, we would probably see a positive loading effect (decreased pressure) with no irreversible damage to the piezoelectric powder. Voila. This is all fine and good, but opportunity lurks just around the corner, if we choose to pursue it. 

2) Turning the waveform dial seems to result in some tricky correlations in powder at low resistance. The first attempt at this, published here, was marginally fruitful due to Mega Ohm resistance. However hydrogen addition has lowered this stubborn barrier to AC field generation, and the powder temperature rapidly responds to the applied waves. This is the most encouraging result thus far in the test; we've had virtually no hydrogen loading yet the low powder resistance allows us to punch it with varying frequencies. It might be worth our while to have another go at applying frequencies to see how much the powder temperature rises above the ambient and/or shell temperature. 

What do you think? Jump into loading or slow down to take advantage of the unloaded powder cooperation?

R5: Off the Vacuum, on the Reef

R5's pressure dipped sufficiently low (2.44e-8) and can go no further. The thermal coupling from shell to powder was an interestingly-large gap that requires analysis, and it will be even better information when loading starts. I will install it on the reef today and set the shell to X watts that result in temperatures between 300-350°C in T_Shell. Then watch for 200psi hydrogen charging, and may the loading commence (I hope)! REMEMBER this means the vacuum data test will go silent and R5's data will return to the R5 test. 

Looking Foward to a New Test

I did a little study on thoria (thorium dioxide) and found it very intriguing. We would add it in the cell to try H-H bond polarization during dissociation on the Ni surface (as per Bob's suggestion earlier). It seems pretty stable stuff, chemically, though I could be wrong. If it IS reactive at operating temps, are there any objections to thoria-dispersed Ni? Does anybody know where to get that? It was a common hardening additive in Ni alloys but has since lost popularity due to its mild radiation.

We already have the link to purchasing thoria powder (thanks Bob!) and may go that direction after ICCF18. I can't say for sure - we never know what will happen around the date. Last time we ended up making an international organization! 

Thanks for the read!

[UPDATE #1 - Status of Cells]

R3: The uncertainty in R3's next step seems to have been solved for us. As fortune would have it the reef's endpoint electrical short reset the power control board and reset the control loop to 0W. I hadn't noticed this change until today (oops) and the cell had a nice quiet weekend to cool off its jacket heater. We're already 'here' so we'll take the time to run AC frequency sweeps again and look for interesting effects. I'm certainly looking forward to it because the powder is incredibly responsive right now and I expect some interesting, not flat data! Check the experiment log for specific times because T_Powder should readily fluctuate with AC power. 

R5: Some technical drama delayed the full re-installment of R5 onto the reef and R5 data stream. Having squashed the bugs, I will be cranking up R5's power and charging with hydrogen this afternoon. 

That's it for now!