OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: If it IS 400 C, it would seem to me that the reaction then increasing > to 600 C... a mere +200 C more, (before it conks out) does not strike > me as being terribly efficient. >
I think it is optimum at 600°C and then it starts to go downhill after that. I am just guessing the decline is gradual based on how Mizuno's high temperature experiments work. I should not have said "conk out." That sounds abrupt. Although there will be a temperature at which the remaining reaction stops abruptly as the lattice degasses or is destroyed. Not only will it fail, but the material will be destroyed and will not work again. However, Rossi says it is fail-safe. That is, self-limiting. It cannot reach destructive temperatures and it cannot over-react because as the temperature rises the Ni powder degasses, and the reaction fades away and then stops. I have no idea what that self-limit or the lattice destruction temperatures would be. There are conventional chemical and nuclear reactions that are similarly self-limiting. I assume the purpose of the resistance heaters is to heat local areas in the powder above the max, drive out the gas, and lower the reaction rate. I just assume that -- no one said it as far as I know. Those things cannot be compensation heaters. 80 W cannot compensate 16 kW! - Jed
