Experiment Steps (updated-again)

Written by Ryan Hunt on 14 November 2012.

We have chenged the conditions to attempt to load the wire with Hydrogen once again. We loaded the cell with Hydrogen and set the power to achieve T_Mica of 170C. We are heating the cell with the nichrome wire. We watched for a couple hours and the resistance of the wire did not change much compared to the first loading cycle. So, we upped the power to try to go to 200C.

We do not have a good baseline for this point of operation. The closest is calibration run 7, which was H2@ 3.5 bar, but heating with the Isotan wire instead of the Celani Wire. The next best data we have is Run 1 in Helium, but that was heating with the Celani wire.

This is where we sit on the graph of the Calibration 7 compared to the readings as of 4pm US Central Time.

The Ambient is trending downward, but relatively slightly. The Pressure in the cell is currently 4.7 bar as compared to 4.5 bar during this point in the calibration. That should, according to out experience, result in a lower T_mica than the baseline.

Here is another setting from a calibration run we did before Cal1 where the cell had Nichrome on both power channels.

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0 #27 check now 2018-05-26 14:55

What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious familiarity regarding unpredicted emotions.

0 #26 mario palladino 2012-11-15 15:58

Just one thougth: maybe the external perspex box, made for security issue, stops heat exchange with the external room air, that should be an infinite heat container. I suppose that this obstacle to heat dispersion entraps hot air inside and tend to increase the temperature of all the components. This is the most relevant experimental difference for this replication experiment compared to Celani original set-up, and maybe the cause of difficulties in highlight excess heat production

0 #25 Ecco 2012-11-15 15:13

@Robert Greenyer: unrelated with current discussions, but what is the MFMP plan with the reactor today? General conditions, including active wire impedance, have been rather stable since yesterday. If active wire local peak temperature as measured yesterday via IR reading is of around 280 degrees, and if activation temperature for LENR triggering can be as high as 350 degrees as reported by Celani, there should be enough headroom to try increasing input power further.

Or maybe letting the reactor "rest" in current conditions for some time *is* the plan?

Don't get me wrong: it's not that I'm impatient to see results, I'm just asking because watching events unfold in real time is quite intriguing - and personally I wouldn't want to miss them or needlessly wait for them (a concentration/p roductivity killer, by the way :) ). I think other followers would agree with this too.

0 #24 Charlie Smith 2012-11-15 13:37

I'm surprised by such large gradients in temperature across the wire, I would have imagined that the gas at that kind of pressure would dissipate the heat from the wire much better.

I really hope that running the wire quite alot above the 160 -170 deg C triggering point hasnt heated the middle of the wire to cause it to sinter. I suppose if there is not much indication of excess heat then you can always pull it out and run it under that nice SEM you have to see whats going on.

0 #23 David Jones 2012-11-15 12:58

Some procedural changes would also help. I noticed Malachi winding out the pressure reducing regulator. We would never do that especially with hydrogen. Set the reducing valve to the pressure you require (10 bar say) and then leave it alone. Turn the main valve on and off only once you have completed each fill.

Two reasons, Safety, with the main valve off if the regulator fails – no problem. This setup also keeps a positive gas pressure in the lines - this reduces the likelihood of gas contamination and gives a running indication of any leaks in the hydrogen gas line up to the isolation valve.

0 #22 Robert Greenyer 2012-11-15 12:54

@ David

Point noted

0 #21 David Jones 2012-11-15 12:18

@ Robert

More importantly. Vertical orientation significantly reduces convective losses to the bottom flange.

0 #20 Robert Greenyer 2012-11-15 12:06

@ David

You have more or less described our Generation 2 reactor - I like the vertical bit though, can drop on insulators and flow calorimetry modules and they would sit there under gravity!

0 #19 David Jones 2012-11-15 11:08

I wish I was back in the lab - i would be trying to get a wire from Celani and a PhD student would have an extra project to do...

0 #18 David Jones 2012-11-15 11:01

One of the reasons for placing the heating wires externally is to make use of thermal lag. If you place thermocouples in the centre of the cell, they will suffer thermal lag in reading the temperature variation compared with thermocouples place on the outside of the glass when heating is from an external source. Conversely, if heating is from the Celani wire (anomalous heating) then the internal thermocouples will lead the external ones.

This is important when you are trying to show the source of the anomalous heating.

@Ecco – thank you – I stand corrected

0 #17 Ecco 2012-11-15 10:46

@David Jones: Celani has already made similar vertical, insulated reactors with a single ended tube for previous LENR experiments in the past. Check out photos toward the end of this document: www.iscmns.org/.../Celani.pdf

+1 #16 David Jones 2012-11-15 10:39

Problem with this experimental setup is that it is a poor design for what it is intended for. Celani is a material scientist and has limited expertise in this type of experimentation.

A better (future) solution would be to use a single ended glass tube with a glass to metal flange seal at the other end. Mount the unit vertically with all connections through the base flange. This setup enables remounting without disturbing any connections. Mount the Celani wire tightly wound (minimum gap between turns) at the top of the tube with thermal baffles below. Wind the heater wire around the outside of the quartz tube and thermally insulate the complete length of tube.

+1 #15 Alex 2012-11-15 07:31

Regarding the IR profiling on the video:

1) Have you tried to calibrate the IR thermometer to correct for the quarts tube? I could imagine a simple IR calibration setup with a few turns of wire on mika + thermocouple and an identical quarts tube sliding in/our, could be in the air at normal pressure (no sealed flanges).

2) Is there any difference in measuring IR from the regular (smooth) wire and Celani's (due to different emissivity)?

3) Do you plan to use an IR camera to continuosly monitor/record video of the wire during active runs? It is possible that if you have any excess-heat, the reaction will be in localized bursts clearly visible on IR video.

0 #14 Ryan Hunt 2012-11-15 05:28

Very good questions, Mr Roberson. The emittance of the wire may throw off the readings. The transmittance of the glass may, too. We are using quarts, which lets a good deal of IR through. Since it seemed to be very responsive to what I was pointing at, I figured it was useful as a relative reference.

0 #13 David Roberson 2012-11-15 04:17

I have a question for you to consider. How is it possible to measure the IR radiation from the wire with your gun if the glass is supposed to stop that type of emission? Perhaps I have a poor understanding of how those guns work.

What would happen if all of the IR were absorbed between the source and the monitor? Can we believe this type of measurement?

0 #12 Rats 2012-11-15 03:47

I'm looking at the raw data right now and it appears you guys have been getting a constant excess of about 8 watts. Is this correct?

0 #11 Ron B 2012-11-15 02:12

The video is great! It's really nice to be able to see the setup and the lab your working in. Makes it all seem more real.

0 #10 Sanjeev 2012-11-15 01:53

Thanks Ecco. The voltage looks great this time, totally smooth.

+1 #9 Robert Greenyer 2012-11-15 01:44

It is true, just like on the first loading - we are using the NiChrome wire to heat the cell.

However, the R/R0 after cool down was still way under 0.9 so the wire is still partially loaded.

Celani did report that he got good Excess with passive heating.

Whilst Celani wires have triggered between 250 and 350, we are being told that recent ones are triggering at above 350.

From the video - you can see that a hunch about localised heat variation is panning out - there are areas that are starting to be above the expected lower triggering temperatures, but we are still wary of this.

The problem with so much variation in the cell would be mitigated by a tube that thermalised all IR and then effectively averaged the temperature through the mass of the glass.

We will let the thing run to gather data and then crank up the power in the NiChrome and see if we can push more of the Celani wire into potentially revealing the effect.

0 #8 Ecco 2012-11-15 01:18

@Sanjeev: have a look at the "Blue" wire data. This time power is not being applied to the active wire ("Red").

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