Another attempt to untangle Rossi’s mess:
We’ve established that calorimetry for latest Oct 6 demo is badly flawed – due to awful temp measurement on secondary loop, so here is an alternative methodology to try and extract something useful. As the temperature in the reactor rises above 100°C steam starts to be produced, building pressure in the reactor. Assuming the reactor temperature is accurate we can then work out quite accurately the pressure and density of the steam produced by simply looking at saturated steam tables. The fact that pressure builds implies that there is a significant flow restriction through the outlet, tube and heat exchanger, I am assuming that most of this restriction is in the reactor outlet and tube as there are relatively large parallel flow areas in the heat exchanger and steam will be condensing there very rapidly to lower flow speeds and restrictions. Also the photos of the open reactor vessel show a very small outlet hole – seems to be far less than Ø10mm, with a thermocouple entering through the same port and a 90 degree sharp bend it probably represents much of the flow restriction for steam passing through the system. For most flow restrictions, bends and pipe flows the pressure drop is proportional to the dynamic pressure (half density times the velocity squared). Mass flow through a set area is equal to density times area times velocity. So we know the pressure, and the density at all times, but we don’t know the effective flow area. However thankfully Mat did his check on primary flow and gave us a figure of 0.91g/s while the steam was at 116.6°C (at 19:08 during demo). From steam tables this means pressure and density of 1.776 bar absolute (0.76bar gauge) and 1.010 kg/m³ So working through the algebra we get mass flow equal to a constant times the square root of pressure times density. Based on Mat’s mass flow that constant works out to be 0.001022. We can now predict the steam mass flow based on the steam temperature: Steam temp (T2) gives Steam Pressure and Steam Density from saturated steam tables Steam mass flow = 0.001022x(Steam Pressure x Steam Density)^0.5 We know the Steam mass flow and the Steam enthalpy at any temp (from steam tables) and the water inlet temp so we can now predict the heat power going into the steam (assuming water inflow rate = steam production rate) throughout the period where the temperature is greater than 100°C So how do the results from this method look? Well the total steam enthalpy flow throughout the >100°C period from 13:46 to 19:59 is 52.7MJ (substantially greater than the 32.1MJ electrical input), averaging 2.355kW. It does follow the electrical input reasonably well too, dropping about 1000W after the self sustaining period starts (anyone else notice how there is a huge lag in temperature to reactor/heater power of at least 15 minutes?) I know this method doesn’t account for any water outflow from the reactor, but water is a relatively small effect, with even 1g/s only amounting to only about 400W, and that water will be blown through any tight orifices at huge speed, amounting to almost no change in flow restriction. It also doesn’t account for the energy used to heat up the reactor vessel and the inventory of water in the reactor vessel at end (probably another 10-20MJ). I think this method can be regarded as a very conservative approach, and the E-cat comes through looking good. Safety: Don’t stand near the fat cat. 30 litres of 125°C water and steam at 1.5bar gauge pressure in a stupidly designed thin walled SQUARE pressure vessel with one whole side held on by a few bolts and engineered by someone of Rossi’s demonstrated ability could kill or severely burn someone, it would be a big fat fail for any 1st year engineering student who even proposed it, and is illegal under the European pressure equipment directive (not to mention the internationally recognised ASME BPVC) – all of which could be avoided if he simply reverted to the earlier (and I think generally better) demo e-cat design. If he has a pressure release valve it should not be above 0.5bar (111°C). I also don’t think the water pump is supplying water at max temp (125°C) as the pressure is exceeding the pump’s 1.5bar capability – so as the water boils away and the reactor starts to overheat it is setting itself up for melt-down and steam explosions, no wonder he is having problems with stability and control – his thermal design is atrocious. Well done on getting the chemistry/metallurgy right, but Rossi does not appear to be a competent engineer.
<<attachment: Rossi October 6th Demo Calorimetry based on steam temp.gif>>
