Axial distribution of water during the test (Cell 1)
At the end of October, two jpegs were posted that illustrated the analysis of the evolution of the axial distribution of water in Cell 1 (i, ii). This analysis subdivided the cell height in two regions: a lower mostly Liquid region (L) and an upper mostly Void region (V). Hypothetical trends, limited to the boiling-to-dry phase, were proposed for the variation in the height of region L and of the liquid fraction in region V. This former analysis was based on the video of the "Pons presentation" at Nagoya in 1992, whose quality did not allow to distinguish the stratification within the two regions.
Subsequently, another video was reported, called "IMRA time lapse" (iii). This video is much longer and more detailed, so it allows to extend the analysis to a longer period and to better define the stratification inside the cells, which now can be subdivided in the following 4 layers:
- T (as Transparent): it's the lowest layer containing liquid water, which is totally or partially transparent;
- B (as Bubbling): is the overlying liquid layer in which the rising bubbles occupy the whole cross section, so that it appears completely bright;
- F (as Foam): the layer containing foam;
- E (as Empty): the upper layer that does not contain water in any form.
The T and B layers form the L region, where the liquid fraction is greater than 90%. The F and E layers form the V region, where the liquid fraction is below 1%.
The evolution of the heights of these 4 layers during the entire test transient of Cell 1 is shown in the following jpeg:
The cell images are extracted from 3 videos (1-2-3) and the F&P paper presented at ICCF3 (4). They show the evolution of the axial distribution of the water within Cell 1, although, in order to extend the analysis period, three of them show other cells (namely 3 and 4), which should be representative of Cell 1 in the same situation.
The cell images are labeled with capital letters: A to N for those extracted from the videos, P for the image taken from the paper. These labels are reported on the upper graph and scheme for indicating their time position with respect to the whole trends of the temperature and voltage of Cell 1 (graph on the left) and with respect of the video clips from which they are taken (bar scheme on the right). This last scheme is derived from the synoptic showing all the clips available on internet (iv).
The sequence of images is crossed by 3 colored lines which indicate the approximate level of the 4 layers. The blue line separates the Liquid region from the Void region. The green line subdivides the Liquid region into the lower Transparent layer and the Bubbling one. The red line subdivides the Void region into the Foam and Empty layers.
Another 3 black horizontal lines indicate as many fixed reference levels with respect to the longitudinal section shown on the left side. The thick upper line indicates the internal upper limit of the cell, the thin discontinuous line the lower limit of the upper silvered portion of the cell, and the lowest thin continuous line marks the lower limit of the internal free volume. This lower limit is located just above the KEL-F disc that supports the electrodes and appears as a white bar at the bottom of the images. This longitudinal section has been taken from Figure 1 of F&P paper (4), but probably its internals don't correspond exactly to the cell model used in the reported tests.
Below, the single images of the cell are described. Each description will start with the source (the reference plus the video time) and the time of day (in hh:mm:ss) indicated in the video frame.
A – [(1) at 00m11s, 11:29:53] Cell 1 before the switching on. The water is completely transparent, there are no bubbles. The liquid level is not visible because it is hidden by the silvered upper portion of the cell, it is assumed that it was at the level indicated in Figure 1;
B - [(1) at 00m37s, 11:30:19] Cell 1 a few seconds after the switching on. The gas bubbles produced by electrolysis at 200 mA rise vertically, remaining concentrated in the innermost part of the cell;
C – [(1) at 02m06s, 3:55:14] Cell 3 in the last available video frame of the Cell 2 boil-off phase. As it can be seen in the graph included in the jpeg posted in a previous comment (iv), this image shows the Cell 3 at a temperature slightly above 70°C, so it is considered representative of Cell 1 at the same conditions, which onset a couple of days before the boil-off phase. The electric current is now 500 mA, there are more gas bubbles at mid height, but the water is still transparent up to the top of the unsilvered portion.
D – [no image] The onset of boiling. No image is available for this important moment. Boiling should start when the input power exceeds the 11 W estimated in (4) as the heat loss by radiation at 100°C, ie after the voltage reaches 22 V, which occurs a few hours before the time of the following image E. At this time, the water temperature should be almost at the boiling point and some areas of the electrodes are already beyond that point, so that steam bubbles add to the gas bubbles generated by electrolysis. It is expected that above a certain height, the raising bubbles, increased in number and volume, occupy the whole cross section of the cell, determining the appearance of the bright Bubbling layer, where there is no more transparency. Probably, the thickness of this layer increases very rapidly, extending quite soon to almost the upper half of the cell;
E - [(1) at 02m29s, 5:02:04] Cell 4 at the beginning of first video clip (n.11) showing its boiling phase. As showed in (iv), this video clip is the earliest among the boil-off phases, since it starts about 6 hours earlier, so its beginning shows the first available image of the boiling phase of any cell. This image shows that a thin layer of Foam appears just below the silvered portion. This Foam layer is more evident watching the video. It is partially hidden by the silvered screen and progressively thickens due to the lowering of the underlying Liquid region;
F - [(1) at 02m40s, 5:25:04] Cell 4 at the end video clip n.11. Looking at the video it seems that the Foam layer is now entirely below the silvered portion, so that it is in full view and a thin darker Empty layer appears over it. The Foam thickness can be estimated in a about half centimeter. The analogues situation of Cell 1 should occur 2-3 hours earlier than the following image;
G - [(1) at 00m37s, 18:33:01] Cell 1 at the beginning of the short video clip n.2. It's the first available video frame for the boiling phase of Cell 1. Now the Foam layer is well below the silvered portion and its thickness has grown to about one centimeter;
H - [(1) at 00m49s, 19:00:15] Cell 1 at the end of video clip n.5. The Foam thickness has grown further above the Bubbling layer, whose upper level has in turn lowered further. This is the last image where this two layers are clearly distinguishable each other, thanks to the difference of the brightness at their interface. The 4 images from E to H show that the brightness of the Bubbling layer is more intense at half height of the cell, then decreases with height, maybe due to a partial condensation of the bubbles or for an optical effect. This fact is important in the subsequent analysis of the evolution of the water layers, since when the Liquid region lowers due to the loss of water, the difference in brightness at the interface between the Bubbling and Foam layers diminishes until they become indistinguishable;
I - [(3) at 00m52s, 19:47:58] Cell 1 at the end of the first video clip that appears on the wall screen during the Pons' presentation at ICCF3 in Nagoya. The synoptic of the available video clips (iv) shows that this clip lies in an intermediate period not covered by any other clip, so it provides unique information on the evolution of the Foam layers. Looking at the video it is possible to estimate that the Bubbling level is now a few centimeters below the silvered portion and that the Foam thickness has increased to almost one cell diameter. Even the lower partially Transparent layer begins to decrease due to the much more intense production of vapor;
J - [(1) at 00m50s, 21:16:58] Cell 1 at the beginning of the video clip n.6. The height of the lower Transparent layer is now less than one cell diameter. The Foam level is about one diameter below the silvered portion, but now it is no more possible to distinguish its interface with the Bubbling layer, even watching the video. It's likely that their interface is quite low, close to the Transparent layer so that most part of the cell is already full of Foam. The video shows that the Transparent layer reduces very rapidly. The gradual uncovering of the electrodes causes a rapid increase of the voltage in order to keep the current constant and the consequent increase of the dissipated electric power accelerates the evaporation rate of water, which in turn generates an even greater quantity of vapor, whose volume had been estimated in a previous jpeg (v). This high volumetric flux of rapidly rising vapor displaces and lifts the overlying Foam which is pushed toward the upper unsilvered limit of the glass, so that the cell appears again completely bright;
K - [(2) at 01m17s, 21:52:58] Cell 1 at the beginning of the second clip in the "Four-cell Boil-off" video. This is the moment previously described in which the cell appears completely bright again, but this brightness is due to the Foam that is lifted by the vapor that is produced at the maximum volumetric rate. A blue text with time (21:52) and a blue arrow appear immediately at the beginning of this clip. The blue arrow was probably meant to indicate the level of the water at the said time. Hard to say which criteria was used to place this arrow, because in the exact moment at which the cell appears, it looks completely bright, but its level is rapidly changing. After a while, the exhaustion of the liquid water causes the sudden cessation of the vapor flow, the Foam is no longer lifted and its level rapidly drops to half height. Subsequently, the Foam level continues to decrease at a slower pace due to the breaking of its bubbles;
L - [(2) at 01m30s, 22:17:58] Cell 1 in the same clip as above, in the moment when the lowest blue arrow is shown accompanied by the corresponding time (22:18) in blue digits. With reference to the clip scheme, this image is at the end of the thin white bar, which represents the time interval between the most extreme blue arrows appearing during the whole video clip represented by the thicker reddish bar. The duration of this interval is 26 minutes and, as already said (vi), it is not known how it could have been related to the 10-11 minutes that F&P stated were required to boil-away the last half of the initial water content;
M - [(1) at 01m25s, 22:26:58] Cell 1 at the end of the video clip n.6. A few minutes after the image L, the residual Foam remains almost at the same level, well above (a couple of cell diameters) of the cell bottom;
N - [(1) at 03m13s, 11:11:04] Cell 1 at the end of the video clip n.14. This is the very last image of Cell 1, taken from the last frame of video (1), at the end of the boil-off of Cell 4, that is after 25 days from the beginning of the experiment, and more than 10 days after the end of the boiling phase of the Cell 1 itself. Despite all this time, the Foam still persists at the bottom of Cell 1, with a volume not very different from that at time M. The video shows that the same happens for the Cell 2 and 4, while Cell 3 is the only one in which the Foam disappears almost completely in the outer part of the cell, but it persists in the innermost part. This indicates that the boil-off process generates a long-lasting Foam, which should not have been unnoticed by the experimenters who opened the cells at the end of the experiment;
P – [(4), 22:03:57] Finally, it is described the image of Cell 1 derived from Figure 10 (B) included in the F&P paper presented at ICCF3. Its time, intermediate between the images K and L, and its caption ("The first cell during the final period of boiling dry with the other cells at lower temperatures.") confirm that this image was meant to represent the period during which half of the water content (that is 45 cm3 (2.5 moles) out of the initial 90 cm3 (5 moles)) vaporized in just 11 minutes (as stated on page 13 of the report) or in 10 minutes, as assumed in the calculation reported at page 16. This calculation gave a value of 145.5 W of excess heat generated during these last 10 minutes, that, divided by the volume of the Pd cathode, became 3700 W/cm3. Two numerical results summarized in this way by F&P on page 19 of their paper: "We note that excess rate of energy production is about four times that of the enthalpy input even for this highly inefficient system; the specific excess rates are broadly speaking in line with those achieved in fast breeder reactors."
Extraordinary claims based on a completely wrong assessment of their experiment, that, let me say, for nearly 30 years have been driving the inconclusive research of an impossible goal.
(i) FP's experiments discussion
(ii) FP's experiments discussion
(iii) FP's experiments discussion
(iv) FP's experiments discussion
(v) FP's experiments discussion
(vi) FP's experiments discussion
(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn9K1Hvw434
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBAIIZU6Oj8
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n88YdKYv8sw
(4) http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/Fleischmancalorimetra.pdf