[Francisl]

The HyperV was the inspiration for the drawing that I made. The drawing is pretty crude and I was trying to explore the idea of having the pinch occur outside of the central electrode. That should allow more power to be applied to the pinch without damaging the electrodes so much.

[Francisl]

This company uses electron beams for the heat source. Other companies use lasers. It may be a less costly way to experiment with different materials and designs.

[Francisl]

I like it. I can see it being used as the soundtrack for a video clip of a fusion rocket.

[Francisl]

Could a small onion type device be constructed now and placed close to the DPF to catch some x-rays to test the concept and do some preliminary engineering?

[Francisl]

PLANSEE Express is showing product on hand but not in the size you are looking for. Your machine shop will have to do some extra work.

[Francisl]

Francisl wrote: Maybe low pressure oxygen could be admitted to the chamber and the plasma system fired a few times. The highly reactive oxygen plasma should oxidize the boron into B2O3. Boron oxides may chemically combine with the insulator. I don’t know if that would be an improvement or not.
It would be interesting to try an oxygen plasma on a carbon coating to see the effect.

Wikipedia has two articles listed as Plasma cleaning and Plasma ashing that may be useful. Cleaning carbon is easy. Removing boron may be harder. An aggressive oxygen plasma could damage the metal electrodes so they would have to be protected. Argon or helium plasmas may be more practical. This has been mentioned in other posts about removing contaminants from the chamber.
An automated cleaning system could be designed for a commercial unit.

[Francisl]

Maybe low pressure oxygen could be admitted to the chamber and the plasma system fired a few times. The highly reactive oxygen plasma should oxidize the boron into B2O3. Boron oxides may chemically combine with the insulator. I don’t know if that would be an improvement or not.
It would be interesting to try an oxygen plasma on a carbon coating to see the effect.

[Francisl]

I would think that any material coming from a plasma would have an electrostatic charge for a short time. Maybe an electrostatic dust collector inside the chamber could collect the boron dust. It would be interesting to try it with acetylene first to see if carbon dust could be collected that way.

[Francisl]

Here is an interesting discussion about Equity Vs. Donation based funding and this website has some of the players in this game.

[Francisl]

This is a great video demonstrating how to fire up an audience. Nancy Duarte: The secret structure of great talks

[Francisl]

asymmetric_implosion wrote:

Dow corning 1540-20p is a pourable silicone that can be formed in a mold any shape. Mix it with alumina or other insulator dust and you have a tailor made insulator with a lot of flex, insulating properties thermal capabilities, its off the shelf and inexpensive. 1 mold can make as many as you need and can easily be modified. Samples are easily obtained and would most likely cover the first few trials.

Silicone is like a polymer. It has many of the same problems of the polymer including UV sensitivity. Can alumina be mixed with it and will the silicone wet to the alumina? Wetting is key to building a strong compound. There are alumina and binders that can be molded into any shape but they are prone to cracking in the presence of intense plasma discharges like the plasma focus breakdown.

Another cheap material to experiment with is sodium or potassium silicate. It has good thermal and dielectric strength but it is brittle. That can be partially handled with different additives. It can be used as a binder for alumina or other insulating material and it can handle ultraviolet rays.

[Francisl]

asymmetric_implosion wrote: A plasma is forming behind the insulator. The rapid heating of the gas to plasma increases the pressure and shocks the insulator.

Can the gas behind the insulator be displaced by more insulation as either a solid or packed in powder? Can some type of pressure relief be formed in the insulator or the anode to accomodate the shock wave?

[Francisl]

Would it be helpful to refer to the math or science courses at the Khan Academy for persons interested in re-learning this information?

[Francisl]

benf wrote: I’m wondering if someone could explain the numbers on the chart to those of us who are math challenged??? I’m not sure what R2 is referring to. The spike voltage to the 2.73 power makes some sense but I’m lost with the rest. I’ve looked back at basic math primers, I’m still scratching my head.

It refers to using linear regression to create a trend line to match the data points.

The Khan Academy has good lessons on how this is calculated.

[Francisl]

Dry ice blast cleaning is a method that might work. It is used for cleaning electrical equipment.

[Author]

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