On Sun, Jun 2, 2013 at 2:10 PM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote:
Does this help to explain the operation according to my model? > Yes. But I think your SPICE model is working at a higher level than what I was describing. Your model is looking at the thermodynamics of the system as a whole, and when you take away a third of the heat by cutting power to the resistance heaters, the core is starved and so on. This is a macroscopic view of the core, where the temperature would appear uniform to a set of thermocouples. I'm looking at the microscopic level, where if you could zoom in you'd see a different level of activity. I think your SPICE model is more consistent with my model (2) than my model (1). I have in mind specifically the SPAWAR video [1]. One detail I should elaborate on for model (2) is that there would not necessarily be a threshold temperature, per se, above which you'd get runaway and below which you'd get dissipation. Instead there would appear to be a bounded temperature range, at the lower bound of which you're less likely to get local temperature excursions and at the upper bound of which you'd be more likely to get them. At the upper bound of the range, you'd cross over into runaway. Eric [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUVmOQXBS68
