On 02/08/2011 04:22 PM, [email protected] wrote: > In reply to Stephen A. Lawrence's message of Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:22:25 -0500: > Hi, > [snip] > >> In this case, the flow rate is fixed by the positive displacement pump >> at what seems to be an arbitrary value, and the power level is whatever >> the reactor puts out. It's an enormous coincidence that the temperature >> of the effluent was within 2 degrees of boiling. You would think >> hitting it that close to "on the nose" would require very careful tuning >> of the input flow rate, or it would require some kind of feedback >> control of the pump. Neither is present here, as far as I can tell. >> >> I have a hard time with coincidences of that scale. >> > [snip] > Perhaps the power level was being deliberately controlled to ensure that the > steam was just above boiling (i.e. dry)? > > IOW maybe the controls were designed to ensure precisely that? >
As far as I can see, that's the only explanation (other than sopping wet steam) that doesn't require us to wave away an unpleasantly large coincidence. It would be nice if we'd seen some mention of the ability to precisely control the reaction rate by adjusting the electrical input, though. All the comments I've seen on the heater supply seemed to lead to the opposite conclusion -- the control is gross, on/off, not at all fine.
