FAQ - Temperature!...of a fusor...of fusion
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:07 pm
Outside and inside "REAL temperatures:
There is an atmospheric temperature of the fusor shell and it will rarely reach the boiling point of water. There are localized spot high temperature zones where ion and electron streamlines impact the walls. These spots are much warmer. They are the source of spot heating of the shell which, over operational time, contribute to the overall outside, atmospheric temperature of the fusor shell. These spot heating points might reach 500 deg C at the impact point inside a fusor which is a very tiny point. In glass bell jars, this is a point of great danger and can lead to flaking of localize glass chips and, if continued, could result in total failure of the jar and a dangerous implosion.
All metal fusors are in no danger of overheating unless the use of very soft soldered or epoxied joints are part of its construction. All joints should be TIG welded or Hard silver soldered (brazed). A fusor can be cooled if desired by winding a coil of copper tubing over the fusor body and pumping water through the tubing to a heat exchanger and recirculated. I think only one or two of our folks have attempted this. Thus, it is not necessary to cool the average fusor.
Fusion temperatures:
There are temperatures or more honestly, energies, often quoted in degrees kelvin related to the internal fusing plasmas. The use of the word "Kelvins" is proper, but few folks detail this fact. In these often misleading statements, mostly giving by physicists trying to impress a lay audience, millions of degrees are quoted. They often never add the word kelvins. Why confuse the ignorant with the proper terminology? Just say it in degrees like the temperature they understand in day to day life. (deliberately misleading)
The fusor's internal "ion" and fusion temperatures in kelvins are in a vast range. From as cool as a low of 165,000 degrees to the ideal fusion ion-ion collisions resulting in fusion of 440 million degrees in a 40 kilovolt fusor (my fusor IV). Most of the ions in a 40kv, (440 million degree), fusor are much hotter than 1 million degrees and much cooler than 100 million degrees. I have delivered the foregoing as a fusion physicist would deliver it to the media when talking about how close they are to doing fusion. Again, substitute the word "Kelvins" in every instance where I used degrees and the truth is told.
The fusor fuses in "velocity space" and not in a uniform plasma as in a thermal fusion machine (tokamak, ITER). This is key to its operation. We are dealing with ion-ion, ion-neutral and neutral-neutral collisions when we fuse in an IECF fusor within velocity space, thus, there is a range of energies within velocity space.
The fusion in a fusor or a tokamak occurs in a hyper-thin atmosphere of deuterium ions and not a "feelable" solid, so, a "feelable" heat in kelvins or degrees is just not there. Temperature, (thermally speaking), is nothing more that the speed of particles in a solid, liquid or gas and nothing more. The faster those particles move, the higher the temperature in kelvins or degrees of that particle. In solids, quintillions of particles all colliding with each other, make a "feelable" temperature to our skin. In a vacuum level gas of fusing deuterium all gas particles that are moving about at a relative temperature of 100 million kelvins would feel incredibly cold.
In deep space the temperature is near absolute zero degrees and zero kelvins. Why? There are only a rare few particles moving about per square cm. In space your hand, a solid, would rapidly freeze due to the moisture in your body....YET.... the few particles impacting your hand's skin in space each second are at millions or even billions of kelvin degrees, (cosmic ray matter particles, etc.)
* note * There is some amount of beam on target collision in the fusor that does not involve velocity space fusion. (explained in another FAQ)
Fusion temperatures are conversions of the energy of the deuterons and neutrals in motion, (kinetic energy), to an equivalent temperature of a particle in motion in a sea of molecules in a solid substance at that temperature. In the fusors or any fusion device, you are in a "near space" vacuum of flying deuterons and neutrals and not in a solid, so, you can't relate this to a "feelable", "touchable", temperature that our senses are commonly linked to. The normal method of talking among fellow physicists would be to discuss the energies as "electron volts" (ev). The relation of electron volts to kelvins is to multiply the (eV) kinetic energy of the particle by about 11,000. A 1 keV particle is said to represent an 11 million kelvins particle. (11 million kelvin degree particle in botched speak)
The general public would have issues understanding this concept and the fusion physicist absolutely relies on this to befuddle and confound.
Don't be a "general public" type! If you are still confused, read up on the physics and Boltzmann's work on thermodynamics.
Absolute zero = no motion of any particle = -273deg C = - 460 deg F = 0 kelvins = 0 eV (electron volts)
Water freezes at 0 deg C 32 deg F .0235 eV (corrected by Joe Ballentyne - Thanks)
Richard Hull
There is an atmospheric temperature of the fusor shell and it will rarely reach the boiling point of water. There are localized spot high temperature zones where ion and electron streamlines impact the walls. These spots are much warmer. They are the source of spot heating of the shell which, over operational time, contribute to the overall outside, atmospheric temperature of the fusor shell. These spot heating points might reach 500 deg C at the impact point inside a fusor which is a very tiny point. In glass bell jars, this is a point of great danger and can lead to flaking of localize glass chips and, if continued, could result in total failure of the jar and a dangerous implosion.
All metal fusors are in no danger of overheating unless the use of very soft soldered or epoxied joints are part of its construction. All joints should be TIG welded or Hard silver soldered (brazed). A fusor can be cooled if desired by winding a coil of copper tubing over the fusor body and pumping water through the tubing to a heat exchanger and recirculated. I think only one or two of our folks have attempted this. Thus, it is not necessary to cool the average fusor.
Fusion temperatures:
There are temperatures or more honestly, energies, often quoted in degrees kelvin related to the internal fusing plasmas. The use of the word "Kelvins" is proper, but few folks detail this fact. In these often misleading statements, mostly giving by physicists trying to impress a lay audience, millions of degrees are quoted. They often never add the word kelvins. Why confuse the ignorant with the proper terminology? Just say it in degrees like the temperature they understand in day to day life. (deliberately misleading)
The fusor's internal "ion" and fusion temperatures in kelvins are in a vast range. From as cool as a low of 165,000 degrees to the ideal fusion ion-ion collisions resulting in fusion of 440 million degrees in a 40 kilovolt fusor (my fusor IV). Most of the ions in a 40kv, (440 million degree), fusor are much hotter than 1 million degrees and much cooler than 100 million degrees. I have delivered the foregoing as a fusion physicist would deliver it to the media when talking about how close they are to doing fusion. Again, substitute the word "Kelvins" in every instance where I used degrees and the truth is told.
The fusor fuses in "velocity space" and not in a uniform plasma as in a thermal fusion machine (tokamak, ITER). This is key to its operation. We are dealing with ion-ion, ion-neutral and neutral-neutral collisions when we fuse in an IECF fusor within velocity space, thus, there is a range of energies within velocity space.
The fusion in a fusor or a tokamak occurs in a hyper-thin atmosphere of deuterium ions and not a "feelable" solid, so, a "feelable" heat in kelvins or degrees is just not there. Temperature, (thermally speaking), is nothing more that the speed of particles in a solid, liquid or gas and nothing more. The faster those particles move, the higher the temperature in kelvins or degrees of that particle. In solids, quintillions of particles all colliding with each other, make a "feelable" temperature to our skin. In a vacuum level gas of fusing deuterium all gas particles that are moving about at a relative temperature of 100 million kelvins would feel incredibly cold.
In deep space the temperature is near absolute zero degrees and zero kelvins. Why? There are only a rare few particles moving about per square cm. In space your hand, a solid, would rapidly freeze due to the moisture in your body....YET.... the few particles impacting your hand's skin in space each second are at millions or even billions of kelvin degrees, (cosmic ray matter particles, etc.)
* note * There is some amount of beam on target collision in the fusor that does not involve velocity space fusion. (explained in another FAQ)
Fusion temperatures are conversions of the energy of the deuterons and neutrals in motion, (kinetic energy), to an equivalent temperature of a particle in motion in a sea of molecules in a solid substance at that temperature. In the fusors or any fusion device, you are in a "near space" vacuum of flying deuterons and neutrals and not in a solid, so, you can't relate this to a "feelable", "touchable", temperature that our senses are commonly linked to. The normal method of talking among fellow physicists would be to discuss the energies as "electron volts" (ev). The relation of electron volts to kelvins is to multiply the (eV) kinetic energy of the particle by about 11,000. A 1 keV particle is said to represent an 11 million kelvins particle. (11 million kelvin degree particle in botched speak)
The general public would have issues understanding this concept and the fusion physicist absolutely relies on this to befuddle and confound.
Don't be a "general public" type! If you are still confused, read up on the physics and Boltzmann's work on thermodynamics.
Absolute zero = no motion of any particle = -273deg C = - 460 deg F = 0 kelvins = 0 eV (electron volts)
Water freezes at 0 deg C 32 deg F .0235 eV (corrected by Joe Ballentyne - Thanks)
Richard Hull