I think the heater is a heater; and Kanthal as the heater wire has nothing to do with it. We now believe that Rossi may have used a SiC heater element and that also has no Ni.
I also don't believe that the H2 just comes out through the 99.8% high purity alumina reactor tube. The tubes MFMP bought were formed with one end closed, so a seal was needed only on one end. This was the first time to try to glue the tube shut. Most ceramic adhesives have a multi-stage cure. It begins with a chemical or room temperature organic cure. As it heats, a glass-melt phase forms and furthers the bond. Finally at highest temperature, ceramic crystal growth occurs and adds more to the bond. The glue used was not meant for forming a seal - it was meant for mechanical bonding and filling only. For this MFMP trial, only a room temperature cure was used. By the time the H2 began to get released, the glass phase had probably not formed. Parkhomov speculated that the pressure may reach 100 bar, and at this pressure, it surely would have leaked out of the seal if the glass phase had not formed. We do intend to ask Parkhomov what adhesive he used and what process he used to insure it was sealed before the high pressure formed. With this long alumina test tube (closed one end), it is possible to heat one end hot to form the seal while the small charge of fuel is kept cool in a water bath at the other end. This may be the next trial at sealing. Bob Higgins On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 8:24 AM, Jones Beene <[email protected]> wrote: > The design choice was to use kanthal resistance wire. Kanthal is composed > of iron-chromium-aluminum (FeCrAl) wire alloys in various proportions. > There is NO nickel in Kanthal. > > > > Parkhomov use nichrome resistance wire. Typically 80% of nichrome can be > nickel. Inconel used by Rossi is also high in nickel. > > > > If nickel is active in this reactor, then the wire itself can contain many > times more net nickel than the actual fuel - which is less than a gram. If > there is 100 grams of nichrome wire in the design, then there can be 80 > grams of nickel but of course it is not in contact with H2 at first. > Hydrogen will diffuse slowly through sintered alumina as it is 7-9% > porosity - but it will diffuse. It will diffuse at high temperature more > rapidly. As noted in earlier posts H2 will not diffuse through fused > alumina, which has no porosity but the tube is not fused. > > > > Thus the characteristic time delay for excess hear - as H2 is slowly > diffusing over hours until it makes contact with the nickel in the wire – > and this happens EXACTLY where we expect that SPP will be forming – the > interface of the wire and the dielectric. > > > > Jones > > > > > > > > >
