This email questions whether or not the sensor described in Rossi's setup can measure the dryness of the steam and whether or not there was a double check on the "steam" calorimetry by using the amount of cooling water along with the change in temperature of the cooling water to calculate energy.
Here are two links that describe the "dry steam" sensor that was listed as being used in Rossi's setup . I googled "HD37AB1347 IAQ Monitor" http://www.wandbinstruments.com.au/Websites/wbinstruments/Images/HD37AB1347_Ing.pdf http://www.deltaohm.com/ver2010/uk/st_airQ.php?str=HD37AB1347 I can't tell if this sensor (and its various probes) can measure the dryness of the steam. Basically the HD37AB1347 is an electronic device that can be hooked up to various probes which can measure all sorts of things including temperature, relative humidity, Carbon Dioxide and pressure. Various other probes can be connected so as to measure more things. But can it measure the dryness of steam? I'm initially skeptical until someone has a good explanation that it can. Measuring steam quality is hard. Steam quality is defined as the fraction of liquid water compared to total water in the sample (i.e. mass of liquid water divided by the mass of liquid water plus water vapor where water vapor is H2O gas). I know that it has been written that a person that is a professional in calorimetry set up Rossi's test. I'd like to know if that person did a double check on the calorimetry by measuring the temperature change of the cooling water and the mass of the cooling water and compared this to the energy calculated by the mass of water converted to steam. Or are they using room air to cool the condensing steam? If they are using room air to condense the steam then this double check method can not be done. Below is a method of measuring the dryness of steam if you have PRESSURIZED steam (Rossi is not using pressurized steam). It uses a device called a "throttling calorimeter". I don't know how the simple probe listed (HD37AB1347) in Rossi's setup can measure the dryness of the steam without starting with pressurized steam (steam having a pressure at least 15 psi above atmospheric pressure) but I'm sure someone will respond with an answer. Is Rossi using a different sensor? The following link is a description of a "throttling calorimeter": http://www.plantservices.com/articles/2003/378.html?page=full The equations hold for steam ranging from 30 psia to to 600 psia (where atmospheric is 14.7 psia). But the key here is you have to start with pressurized steam - which Rossi is not doing so obviously he is using another method. If you have pressurized steam at a starting pressure (PS) you can measure the steam quality using the throttling calorimeter (Note - Rossi is NOT using pressurized steam). Steam quality is defined as the fraction of liquid water compared to total water in the sample (i.e. mass liquid water divided by the mass of liquid water plus water vapor where water vapor is H2O gas). The method involves throttling down to 1 atmosphere of pressure and measuring the resulting temperature of the H2O gas. The throttling will result in all of the liquid phase turning to gas (if the sample does not ALL turn to gas then this method of measuring steam quality WILL NOT work). This method results in two pieces of data - the starting pressure (PS) before throttling and the final temperature (TE) of the H2O gas after it has been throttled. Using steam tables or simplified equations (shown below - from the web page listed) will give the steam quality. So my question is this: Could Rossi's device use ultrasonic devices that convert liquid water into tiny droplets and then condense that into an exterior bucket or a drain pipe? Tiny droplets do not go through a heat of vaporization phase change and therefore it takes less energy to create them. Rossi's setup would have to heat the tiny droplets some amount so as to fool people into thinking that it is steam. Also, are they measuring both the amperage and the voltage into the 400 Watt heater? Or just the amperage but not the voltage becaue the the voltage could be higher than is standard? I will take a guess that a scammer could safely send in 400 volts at 15 amps for 6 kW of power through a high quality but still relatively small wire (something as thick as a typical 50 foot, 15 Amp extension cord bought at Home Depot would be plenty thick for 400 volts and 15 amps - someone please correct me if I am wrong). Is there any chance of a hidden wire that is feeding in more power that we don't know about? I believe that the professors helping Rossi are competent and not scammers - but did they go over the set up with a fine tooth comb or did they stay at a distance? What do they say? What are the facts of these previous long term experimental runs that lasted hours? ================================================================================= The rest of this email gives details on the throttling calorimeter and is copied from the web page I listed previously : http://www.plantservices.com/articles/2003/378.html?page=full Steam quality is a measure of the amount of saturated steam that coexists with its condensate in a given system. Calculate it by dividing the mass of steam by the total mass of steam and condensate. Steam quality = Msteam/(Msteam + Mcond) (Eqn. 1) Others have pointed out the importance of identifying steam quality in systems supporting industrial applications. For example, excessive moisture in the form of free droplets carried along with the main steam flow might impinge on turbine blades and cause mechanical damage. Likewise, high-velocity condensate can score valve seats and cause other erosion and corrosion related problems. Ganapathy(1) gives a detailed explanation of how to calculate steam quality with a throttling calorimeter. A small quantity of the steam is throttled through an orifice from system pressure (PS) down to atmospheric pressure. The steam temperature at the orifice exit (TE) is recorded. This expansion is adiabatic. The following expression describes the energy balance associated with the throttling process: HM = HL (1-X) + HGX (Eqn. 2) And after rearranging: X = (HL-HM)/(HL - HG) (Eqn. 2a) Where: HM = enthalpy of superheated steam at temperature. TE = exit temperature at atmospheric pressure. HL and HG = the enthalpy of condensate and steam, respectively, at system pressure PS. X = the steam quality. Thermodynamic data for calculating steam quality may be obtained from ASME Steam Tables(2) or any other library source(3). Ganapathy developed a diagram, which displays TE on the abscissa and X on the ordinate. A series of isobars for PS in the 50 to 500 psia range also is shown on the diagram. The diagram provides a quick estimate of steam quality when TE and PS are known. Liley(4) calculated steam quality at pressures ranging from 2 bars (29 psia) to 20 bars (290 psia) in one bar increments. He developed an equation of the form: X = A + BTE (Eqn. 3) It describes the steam quality at each pressure, PS as a function of TE. Each set of coefficients A and B is valid for only a single pressure. Coefficients for pressures not included in the list must be interpolated. Solving equations 2a and 3 requires a user to look up recorded data. The following equation was developed to quantify steam quality when the pressure and calorimeter temperature are known. It is valid for a steam quality between 0.95 and 1.00 and for pressures between 30 psia and 600 psia: X = 0.9959 - 0.000442TE - ln[(PS + 6.8)0.03218(PS + 374)-0.0001581TE] (Eqn. 4) Solving for TE: TE = [0.9959 -X - 0.03218 ln(PS + 6.8)]/[0.000442 - 0.001581 ln(PS + 374)] (Eqn. 4a) Expressing steam quality by means of a single continuous function eliminates the need for graphical data representation or interpolation. The equations can be used for online steam quality monitoring with a programmable process controller using orifice exit temperature and steam system pressure as input values, or they can simply be stored in the memory of a pocket calculator for use when the information is required. By curve fitting available data in the ASME Steam Tables, the P-T relationship for saturated steam in the 30 to 600 psia range can be expressed as: PS = 1.5 + (TS/120.62)4.5886 (Eqn. 5) Solving for the saturated steam temperature TS: TS = 120.62 (PS - 1.5)0.21793 (Eqn. 5a) Substituting Eqn. 5 into Eqn. 4 allows the latter to be expressed entirely in terms of TE and TS. The graph in Figure 1 gives a quick method for calculating steam quality when saturation pressure and temperature and calorimeter temperature are known. The validity of the above equations has been tested against a known example presented in one of the referenced articles and, at a more elevated pressure level, against steam data obtained from the Engineering Data Book(3).
