Experiments on cold nuclear fusion and LENR

If you have not already read the premise "Cold fusion and LENR: nineteen hundred and ninety-nine ways not to do them", it is advisable to do so before continuing with the reading.

EQUIPMENT DIMENSIONS

The most significant portion of the setup is that relating to the heat exchanger inside which the material subjected to stimulation is located and which could be the site of cold fusion and LENR phenomena. With reference to the figure below, the area indicated with the letter R is the reaction chamber. The wall of the reaction chamber is in direct contact with the water circulating in the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is a cylinder with a height of about 160mm and a diameter of about 45mm. The volume of liquid inside the heat exchanger is about 75cm³. As shown by the image, the water enters in the top and exits from the bottom. Considering that the density of water decreases with increasing temperature, the hottest water would have a tendency to rise up stationing in the upper part and therefore the configuration adopted would not be optimal from the point of view of natural mixing. The choice of this configuration was dictated by the need to simplify the construction and therefore it must be taken into account that the irregular mixing of the liquid inside the exchanger could contribute to the variability of the outlet temperature.

ATMOSPHERE

The tested material is immersed in a hydrogen atmosphere. Gaseous hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water and flows continuously through the reaction chamber. The presence of a vent avoids the formation of overpressure due to heating. Before being introduced into the reaction chamber, the hydrogen laps on silica gel beads to reduce the humidity.

MEASURED QUANTITIES AND MEASUREMENT MODE

Below is an overview of the measured quantities and how the measurements are made. Even though in some cases these are compromises due to the lack of adequate equipment, they are still considered an acceptable starting point to be able to make objective assessments.
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Quantity: Supply voltage
Symbol: Ve
Measurement unit: V (Volt)
Measurement mode: The supply voltage is measured by the DC power supply.
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Quantity: Current intensity
Symbol: Ie
Unit of measure: A (Ampere)
Measurement mode: The current is measured by the DC power supply.
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Quantity: Electrical input power
Symbol: We
Unit of measurement: W (Watt)
Measurement mode: The electrical input power is calculated as the product of the power supply voltage by the current intensity (We=Ve·Ie).
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Quantity: Flow rate of water through the heat exchanger
Symbol: Qm
Unit of measurement: g/s (grams per second)
Measurement mode: The circulation of water through the heat exchanger takes place by means of a centrifugal pump. The pump takes from a tank containing a few liters of water, the pumped water passes through the heat exchanger and then returns to the tank. The flow rate that crosses the heat exchanger is established by weighing the liquid collected for a predetermined period of time leaving the heat exchanger. The flow rate is determined by the ratio between the weight in grams of the liquid collected and the duration of the collection time in seconds. Unless otherwise specified, the collection period is 120 seconds. This measurement mode does not allow continuous monitoring of the flow and therefore its variability will be estimated on the measurements made.
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Quantity: Temperature variation on the water flow
Symbol: DT
Unit of measurement: ° C (Celsius degree)
Measurement mode: The temperature variation on the water flow is evaluated with two type K thermocouples. One of the two thermocouples is positioned at the inlet of the exchanger and measures the initial temperature (Tin), the other thermocouple is located at the outlet and measures the final temperature (Tout). The temperature difference (DT) is expressed as the difference between the leaving water temperature and the entering water temperature (DT = Tout-Tin) and the temperatures are measured in Celsius degree.
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Quantity: Thermal output power
Symbol: Wt
Unit of measure: W (Watt)
Measurement method: The thermal output power is obtained from the product of the water flow rate through the exchanger by the temperature difference and by the value of the water specific heat at constant pressure assumed fix for simplicity and equal to 4.184J/g·°C (Wt=Qm·DT·Cp with Cp=4.184J/g·°C).
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Quantity: Coefficient of performance
Symbol: COP
Unit of measurement: dimensionless
Measurement method: The instantaneous COP is evaluated as the ratio between the thermal power output and the electrical power input (COP=Wt/We). Since the power is defined as the energy exchanged in the unit of time, the ratio of the powers is equivalent to the ratio of the energies exchanged. A COP value less than one means that the recovered thermal energy is less than the electrical energy input, while with a COP value higher than one, the recovered thermal energy is greater than the input of electrical energy. The choice of evaluating the COP as a ratio of powers instead of energies allows to highlight more clearly any temporary variations which would otherwise be attenuated in the case of the evaluation made with energies.
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The table summarizes the various quantities with the symbols adopted and the measurement units used.