The Focus Fusion Society Forums Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Experiment (LPPX) Engineering help requested Reply To: I think the biggest transition that will shock the industry will be the need for Desalination Plants.

#13033

A couple of questions/comments:

1) If the operating temperature is 3500 K and the melting point of Be is <1600K and vapor point is 2800K are you planning on vapor electrodes? Not impossible but probably pretty challenging at a high repetition rate. Our Z-pinch friends use gas puff technology all the time.

2) I assume that the generator is still running at 200 Hz. If so, you have a 5 ms window for particle deposition. Most sonic processes occur on the ~1 ms scale so particles may not be too bad. I’d be more worried about chemistry between Boron and Be. Laminar jets are probably going to be terribly upset by the returning shock from the gas returning to the vacuum created by the pinch process.

3) What is the pump lifetime you require? Pumping particles through any turbo is very bad news. Rotors spinning a speed of sound hitting particles is like bullets hitting a wall.

4) Be is typically alloyed with aluminum to increase aluminum’s strength.