Of course any strongly insulating material can be used in the application but it is much easier to design in an air gap between the surfaces. Now, once the device reaches a high temperature it is likely that water, which initially resides within the gap(actually I expect a leaky 3D container instead of a gap in one dimension) would be turned into vapor and mostly expelled through small cracks along the joints. The remaining vapor would be very thin since it can contact the high temperature(>1000) core surface.
Molten lead would be quite difficult to handle and to keep from leaking into the environment under these conditions. To me, depending upon molten lead is risky. How would you like to be the guy that needs to change the fuel charge that is surrounded by lead which has hardened after being melted? If an air gap is used instead this would be an easy task. It would be a relatively simple to design narrow ribs that define a location to support the core system at a desired distance away from the surface that receives radiation from that core device. The support ribs design is also compatible with mounting of solar cell like structures upon the radiation receiving cavity surface to generate DC power. Molten lead would be incompatible with this type of structure. Somewhere within the structure there is likely to be a highly insulating material that is used to reduce the input heater drive power requirement and to set a large temperature drop between the core operating temperature and the coolant output temperature. Lead seems like a poor choice for that application whereas an air(water vapor) gap maintaining a controlled radiation, convection and conduction path fits well. Any lead contained after that gap should be subjected to a temperature that is lower than its melting point. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Bob Higgins <rj.bob.higg...@gmail.com> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Sun, Feb 28, 2016 3:16 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:Bremsstrahlung radiation OR, the materials in the stack of his flat plate reactor include a thermal resistance material. It doesn't have to be an air gap to provide the thermal resistance that would allow the fuel to be at a different temperature than the molten lead. On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 1:09 PM, David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: Bob made an interesting video but I believe that his thoughts about melted lead surrounding the active cells are incorrect. It is much more likely that these core cells are operating at a very high external temperature of over 1000 C and radiation to a low temperature surface is the main escape path for the generated heat. Rossi has stated that the actual temperature of the output heated water/steam is highly variable. This is easy to achieve if radiation is the main thermal path. The surface that collects that radiation can then conduct it to the water where the temperature of the cooling water is established by adjusting its flow rate. If you desire a higher coolant temperature you would slow down its flow rate so that more heat is absorbed per kilogram during its pass through the system. Also, having radiation as the main heat flow path from the core allows Rossi to use much less activation heating power. If a lead conductor such as that discussed were used then far more heat would be needed in order to raise the temperature of the active cells. That is counter to achieving a good COP. All of my models support what I am proposing and I have pointed it out several times on this site in the past. One glance at Parkhomov's experimentation and results clearly show that he achieved the most gain and instability(associated with too much positive feedback) when he covered the system with an insulating or reflecting material. Dave
