On Feb 2, 2009, at 6:39 AM, Michel Jullian wrote:
I wish the results were confirmed using a more conventional
calorimetry though, this one doesn't seem bullet proof to me.
Yes the method is mainly comparative. It may indeed be that result
differences are due to differences in heat transfer and not in excess
heat. It also seems to me difficult to de-gas the fiberglass
insulation prior to loading gasses. It might be interesting to see
some much longer run times. Still, for whatever it is worth, my
opinion is that Celani has some important results.
The difference between D2 and He runs are interesting because the two
gasses have similar heat transfer characteristics. It appears true
that if a robust excess heat variation of the experiment should be
devised, i.e. a practical method, that the comparative calorimetry
method used is plenty good enough to recognize it.
This statement in the report is especially interesting: "At present,
we cannot fully explain the exponential increase of the R/Ro value
when direct current is flowing. We do have some candidate hypotheses,
such as the “Preparata effect” (2000) that predicts a sort of
confinement of Deuterium inside the Pd wires due to large voltage
drops along it."
This indicates to me the possibility that increasing the temperature
increasingly disrupts the conduction bands, thereby forcing an
electron flow increasingly into the vicinity of the adsorbed
hydrogen. If true, this increases the probability of the deflated
state. More importantly, increased resistance means a higher
internal electric field for a given current density, which means a
higher tunneling rate vs ordinary diffusion rate. The effect of the
lattice local electric field, i.e. the effect of net energy gained
from tunneling, is exponential on the tunneling rate. This to me
indicates some important approaches:
1. Use a higher resistance lattice material. This permits a higher
internal electrostatic field for a given amount of Joule heating, and
thus a higher hydrogen tunneling rate.
2. Operate in pulsed current mode. This permits the current to be
driven by a much higher voltage, and thus to achieve a higher
internal field per the amount of Joule heating. It permits driving
the lattice at a higher maximum current density without destroying
the wire due to Joule heating. I think various experiments have
shown excess heat being related to achieving a threshold current
density - and the reason for this is that the local electric field as
to be above some minimum value before tunneling the required distance
becomes likely.
3. Use a lattice material that is highly permeable at some feasible
high loading temperature, but which locks hydrogen in place at a
somewhat lower temperature, i.e. prevents ordinary diffusion but, at
the right temperature and internal field strength, permits electro-
migration.
4. As has been done in some experiments, imbed in the lattice
material numerous appropriate layers or particles which impede
ordinary diffusion and increase tunneling based electromigration.
Imagine
that for some reason the electromigration in Pd yields a D2 flux, this
could create a better thermal path from the Pd wire to the Ptmon (temp
monitoring Pt wire) than from the Ptcal to the Ptmon, giving the
illusion of excess heat.
Michel
I would be surprised to see that enough electromigration occurred to
cause significant heat transfer due to the gas flow, though measuring
this possibility or improving the calorimetry method is required to
be certain of anything. It is of possible interest that enthalpies
are involved in both adsorbtion and desorbtion, and this could create
an uneven temperature distribution, and possibly long delays in
reaching thermal equilibrum.
I think a high tunneling rate environment combined with a high
loading factor are critical to achieving large excess heat. Operating
in a high temperature environment helps this by varying the
instantaneous tunneling distances away from the mean, and since the
probability of a tunneling is exponentially related to the distance,
heat can do this with great effect. However, in Pd and various other
hydrogen adsorbing metals at high temperatures the tunneling based
migration is very low compared to the ordinary diffusion migration.
One way to improve this situation is to provide many thin barriers in
the electromigration path that require hydrogen tunneling to conduct,
and which create large local internal fields. This kind of layered
electromigration approach is illustrated in Fig. 2, Page 15 of:
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/DeflationFusionExp.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/cef4pu
though creating a uniform high density mix of close nano-sized chunks
of diffusion supporting lattice material should be more effective.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
