Glowstick 5.2 Test series

The first GS5.2 test is now under way. The cell is loaded with pre-baked Hunter AH50 Ni powder but no LAH. The system was evacuated to 40 um and Hydrogen added to 15.2 psia. After some settling time, I'll heat the cell to ~180 C and let it sit for an extended period. Hydrogen loading into Nickel is a slow process, so not much will be happening except (hopefully) a gradual drop in the Hydrogen pressure.

The live data and video stream (with chat sidebar) is available at:
http://magicsound.us/MFMP/video

Here's a picture of the cell components before assembly:

Will there be a blog post on quantumheat.org that will include a running commentary?

There will be a new blog post at QuantumHeat.org, rather than clutter up the existing and already long GS5 thread. There's also a chat sidebar at the streaming link I provided, for real time discussion.

I wish you success Alan! Do you plan to use any source of stimulation?
A proper stimulation is what we are missing in our experiments and reason why all replicators are not seeing positive results.

There are many possible stimulations including phononic resonance achieved by very precise temperature control management. Unfortunately implementation and decent stimulation amplitude is problem.

In my penultimate run the experiment turned out the reaction at a temperature of 1150, the usual cooling! Due to lack of power supply has to be insulated. 2 seconds lifted termo insulation - the temperature began to rise sharply. Power consumption has fallen (it with the period of averaging 120 seconds, did not immediately evident on the charts).

In another experiment, after power and cooling - noted in the chart is the same surge - a sharp rise in t. And then I cleaned the insulation at this time! Unfortunately, I noticed only after the reactor has cooled down.

I understand perfectly that my equipment is not perfect, and errors can occur. However, there is no need to exaggerate.

@me356 For this series (GS5.2), no stimulus is planned other than thermal transients. I can power the heater with an arbitrary waveform up to 30 kHz and 1200 watts, but the B field will be much less than the 1 Tesla described by Piantelli. I have a plan for direct electric stimulus of the fuel capsule, but that will have to wait for GS6.

Quote from magicsound

me356 For this series (GS5.2), no stimulus is planned other than thermal transients. I can power the heater with an arbitrary waveform up to 30 kHz and 1200 watts, but the B field will be much less than the 1 Tesla described by Piantelli. I have a plan for direct electric stimulus of the fuel capsule, but that will have to wait for GS6.

Can the heating wire accept a much greater load than 1200W for a very brief amount of time? (for example with a capacitor bank discharge)

@Ecco "Can the heating wire accept a much greater load than 1200W for a very brief amount of time? (for example with a capacitor bank discharge)"

Yes, certainly. But the wire has to supply heat as well as stimulus in this scenario. The power source I'm testing is a Behringer iNuke 6000 Class D amplifier (I couldn't resist it with that name!). If configured for bridging (differential) output, It can theoretically supply 6 kW of short-duration pulsed power. This could be (for example) 10 usec full-scale pulses at 10 kHz repetition rate. That would represent a 10% duty cycle, or 600 watts average power, enough to heat the cell core to ~1000 C.

magicsound: from Piantelli's 1995 patent it sounds as if a single abrupt impulse can be sufficient to start up the reaction, which is then maintained using only heat. His experiments were performed at much lower temperatures than in Parkhomov/Lugano replications, though.

https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO1995020816&recNum=1&maxRec=&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=&queryString=&tab=PCTDescription

Quote

The startup occurred with the thermoelectric method (by a thermic impulse produced by a current impulse passing through winding 9), with the core inserted at all times in the above-mentioned magnetic field and immersed in natural hydrogen at a pressure of 500 millibar. More precisely, the startup was obtained with an impulse intensity of 1000A and a rise time of 30 nanoseconds.

Quote

The startup was accomplished with the magnetostrictive method, or, in other words, by applying an electromagnetic impulse to the core through winding 9. More precisely, the startup was obtained with an impulse of 0.8 Tesla and rise time of 0.1 seconds.

(among other details described in previous sections)

Quote from H-G Branzell

Are you really reading patent applications from 20 years ago?
If it at least were a patent. Did Piantelli ever get one on this?

Yes, he did.
http://www.google.com/patents/EP0767962B1

@padam73
My estimate for the volume is 6 ml, so loading was ~.012
The question is HOW to get higher loading, and that's what this experiment is aimed at. Higher temperature didn't seem to work. Maybe some heat/cool cycles would help.
Several sources have stated that the pressure should be no more than 1 atm for proper loading. That can be tested up to 10 atm with the current setup. It all takes time...

When the end of the test, 1 MW, and the skeptic will quickly prove mathematically that the test can not be trusted ..
More experiments any different - the way to the accumulation of statistical data. And then, and finished devices. What pleases - the effect does not require anything expensive.

The experiment is just getting started. After renewing the thermocouple attachments, we're now doing a formal calibration of the cell, still with dummy fuel (Al2O3) and Hydrogen starting at 13 psia. This series of fixed power steps will establish the base line comparison of the active vs null parts of the cell. Initial steps at low powers can take an hour or more to settle, and this also cures the cement attaching the thermocouples, before higher temperature is applied.

We'll also be looking for any further evidence of extra gas coming out of the cell components. The full calibration sequence will take 4-5 hours.

To summarize the results of previous testing, we collected good data for loading of H2 into pre-baked Nickel powder, with a final loading ratio of 0.012 by mass. In the next test I replaced the Nickel fuel capsule with one containing only Alumina. We found that a considerable amount of gas came out of the cell contents when heated, with a final cell pressure of around 3 atm.. Some of this may have been from de-loading of H2 trapped in the inner surface of the Mullite cell tube. Most of it was probably water vapor trapped in the Alumina powder, which is hydroscopic.

Following this finding, I did a lengthy bake-out of the cell at up to 800 C. This was done with vacuum, reaching ~80 microns at the end. After the cell cooled (under vacuum) it was sealed and left over night. The pressure rose to ~3 psia in 12 hours, suggesting either a small leak or additional trapped gas. the cell was pumped out again prior to adding H2 to 13 psia for today's test.

Great job Alan! You walk while we peanuts talk

Another guy that walked the walk is Freethinker, he got radiation after prebaking as you just did. I noticed that in your list of equipment there is only one geiger meter, you might need two to identify the direction of the source of radiation to rule out other sources of radiation IF you will have such a signal. See Freethinker's replication attempts

I recommend read the whole thread, but page #12 is the shit.

Mats, I have a NaI Gamma Spectrometer (thanks to a generous donor) with 200 kg of lead around the detector. It runs during all fueled experiments. The aperture for the detector is visible in the live camera of the video stream.

So far we have seen only background.