I agree with what you guys are saying about some form of cyclic pressure function. Of course I can imagine that a significant temperature pulse might be present when the piston is near its maximum compression point. The following expansion inside the cylinder should allow the gas temperature to fall as the piston extracts mechanical energy during the time that the volume of gas increases.
For a thought experiment lets assume that we have a long cylinder with a piston driving a mechanical load. Inside the cylinder is a certain volume of gas particles at atmospheric temperature and pressure. If we were to push the piston inwards the gas would compress and get hotter as mechanical work is delivered to it. I believe that this is a reversible process provided that no heat is allowed to escape from the compressed gas. So, if we allowed the piston to pass through top dead center, it would then perform mechanical work on its load equal to what we inputted as it returns to the original location. Is it safe to assume that the gas would return to its original state where it is at room temperature and pressure and occupies the same volume? With this cycle in mind, Papp's process might work if it somehow causes a rapid increase in the number of gas particles present when the piston is near the top dead center point. The temperature of the gas would likely rise at that time due to the increased compression. But, if good insulation is present to keep the heat loss to a low value, the gas would certainly apply additional force to the piston rod as it expands outwards. Additional mechanical work beyond that required to complete the original cycle without the Papp process would be generated. As before, expansion would cause the gas temperature to fall significantly as the piston continues its outward motion. If the timing were fortunate, the gas would return to its original number of particles. In that case the gas could nearly recover to its initial state to begin another cycle. The input energy pulse would effectively be converted into mechanical work at a high efficiency. I have a suspicion that this cycle would violate at least one of the thermodynamic laws. Does my thought cycle match what you guys are thinking? It is quite similar to the normal gasoline engine in operation except that the number of particles of the working gas increase instead of just their temperature when external energy is added. Could this occur in a real world engine? If so, Papp might actually have produced a working device. We need a better understanding of exactly what happens to a gas which undergoes a rapid increased to particle numbers followed by a return to it initial composition in this type of environment. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Eric Walker <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Oct 13, 2015 10:38 am Subject: Re: [Vo]:Electron-mediated alpha decay in quasi-stable isotopes On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 9:13 AM, Bob Higgins <[email protected]> wrote: It seems like a reciprocating Papp engine would need to have a cyclic pressurization, not something the continually increases pressure as you are describing. I thought the reported mechanism had a way to catalyze pressure increase electrically and then the pressure returned to the prior lower pressure state. From this cyclic pressure, mechanical energy was extracted. Your understanding is the same as mine. My hope was that the induced alpha decay would only ionize the noble gas and not increase the temperature of the system significantly. If the temperature of the system did increase beyond a certain point, I assume you'd get problems. Regardless, I imagine that there would be a gradual buildup of heat and that you'd have to manage it. Interesting speculation: when Feynman pulled the power chord on the engine and it continued to run, what he disabled was a coolant system. Eric
