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Books on the weather (Amazon.com) Books on the weather(Amazon.co.uk) Copyright Peter Thomson 2005 | |||
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From the Tornado and Ball Lightningto Controlled Nuclear Fusion
©Peter Thomson 1999/2002 All the properties of the charged sheath described for the tornado apply
to a tiny cloud of electrons, or to a positively charged mass flow such
as a cloud of atomic nuclei from which many electrons have been stripped.
The forces between the particles of similar charge moving sufficiently fast
in parallel are still attractive. The forces between same charge particles
moving in opposite directions are repulsive. To achieve fusion, atomic nuclei have to be squeezed together far, far
closer than they would get under normal circumstances. This distance is
known as the coulomb distance, and most fusion research is aimed at achieving
this by simply heating the nuclei to the billions of degrees needed for
their velocity of collisions to achieve this fusion. One problem is the complex
and massive containment needed to keep a very hot plasma confined. The charged sheath vortex suggests an alternative method of confinement,
where the rotating charge cloud will confine itself. If atomic nuclei can be squeezed together by the positive charged mass
flow, without the need for random collisions in superhot plasmas, then fusion
engines could be designed to produce electricity directly by pulsing the
fuel into the mass flow that compresses itself until fusion is reached. The
extra energy from fusion will cause the mass flow to accelerate, and bind
itself even tighter, releasing its energy as electromagnetic fields or energetic
electrons until the fuel pulse is exhausted. This fusion device can therefore be used as a direct source of electrical
power using the mass flow fusion tornado as the primary coil of a transformer
with no need for heat extraction. As the mass flow of the charged vortex
sheath is self containing it doesn't need the complex magnetic bottles to
hold it in place. A simple magnetic field will anchor the vortex in place
alongside the secondary coils of the transformer. In order to create this vortex a slug of dense plasma has to be accelerated
to a high velocity, and then induced to spin into a vortex. Mechanical guns
are too slow, and particle accelerators require large magnetic fields and
cannot accelerate more than a few particles at a time, but there are a number
of experimental procedures getting close to the requirements for fusion.
Without an understanding of the exact conditions they need to create they
are floundering, but with this theory behind them it should be possible to
design the exact situation in which fusion will take place. One candidate for the accelerator is a rail gun. Here a slug of plasma
forms between two parallel conductors as a large current is discharged through
the conductors. The plasma conducts the current between the conductors,
and the large magnetic fields produced by this current accelerate the slug
down the rails. This high velocity plasma should become pinched by the large
current through it, and it can also be spun up into a vortex by firing the
high velocity plasma slug over a magnetic field as it leaves the gun. The plasma vortex gun should produce enough velocity in the spinning plasma
to induce fusion in the plasma vortex walls, at a sufficiently high density
to produce a useful energy output. A search of the plasma research literature for any examples of vortices
appearing spontaneously in the plasma reveals several which might be candidates
for the predicted charged sheath. The biggest surprise was to find the best descriptions of vortex structures
from a device that uses many properties of the rail gun to produce a plasma
slug, and where the researchers claim to have detected the unmistakeable
signature of fusion in the plasma slug. This device is small, light, and known as a dense plasma focus device.
The rails are two concentric copper tubes, and the discharge from a capacitor
bank takes place in a low pressure atmosphere. In one of the more recent reports using these devices, Eric J Lerner describes
a dense plasma focus device which creates a tiny plasmoid within which he
believes fusion takes place, and in which he has measured all the signature
radiation of fusion. The plasmoid forms with exactly those characteristics
that I predict for the charged sheath vortex. The discharge in his dense plasma focus device forms a ring of small vortices
between the outer and inner rails, and these are accelerated down the short
length of the gun. As they leave the gun, these vortices wrap round each
other to form a dense plasmoid. This confirms my hypothesis that the plasma
vortex will not simply fly apart, and his diagrams of how he observes the
vortices to wrap is also in agreement with my theory – and the way in which
tornados have been filmed wrapping round each other. My theories explain several other aspects of the results recorded for
this experiment as follows. As the plasma vortices reach the end of the central
electrode the net force produced by the electrons in the sheath of this
tube cause the tube to extend. As the extending tubes are all radiating
from the central electrode, this extension is towards the central point,
where as the tube ends approach each other, the electromagnetic forces repel
other tubes and the tubes start to curve back towards the centre of the electrode.
Only two vortex tubes are shown in the diagram. In real experiments many
tubes are produced and curl round each other. As the extension and wrapping of the tubes continues, the wrapping becomes
tighter (2) and (3). The electromagnetic forces that this creates encourages
electrons within the plasma to drift to one end, and atomic nuclei towards
the other. As this charge separation starts to develop positive feedback
from the increasing electromagnetic fields intensifies the charge separation
. At the same time the plasma circulation suddenly changes from individual
circulation within each tube, to a single circulation round the periphery
of the mass of tubes – a single super tube sheath with an intense positive
sheath at one end and an intense negative sheath at the other (4). As this super tube sheath continues to extend, This super vortex sheath gets intensely hot, and according to Lerner, radiation
indicative of fusion is detected originating from this point. The electrons spiral along the much stronger magnetic field lines from
the atomic nuclei, and produce a complex tracery of energetic electrons
exciting the surrounding gas molecules and causing them to glow. This little
plasmoid therefore develops a structure identical to that of ball lightning. Lerner’s work was funded by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Texas
Engineering Experiment Station. My charged sheath theories suggest that the essential element in the core
of the fusion engine is to spin a plasma at high enough speed to induce
charge separation. The fusion will then take place within the charge sheath
of the positive vortex. Once started the fusion will continue until
the fuel for that pulse has been used up. It is therefore an essential requirement
of such plasma research that the plasma vortex is kept as small as possible
so that energy release is controllable. There are several ways of developing the plasma gun in order to intensify
the super vortex and charge separation. Two low density plasma guns using opposing polarity firing directly at
each other could result in the vortex tubes joining up at the point of collision
to produce a super sheath and so produce a much larger containment time
for the plasma sheath. Two high density plasma guns , again firing at each other, could produce
intense shear vortices in the plasma at the point of impact. These initial
high values for particle density and rotation should produce rapid charge
separation and intensify the heating from compression of the vortex. A much more direct approach would be to create a dense plasma between
two electrodes and spin it up using external magnetic fields, or microwaves,
or a mixture of the two. External magnetic fields are already used to spin
the plasma in the electrodes of a plasma torch at up to 3600 rps. See http://www.westinghouse-plasma.com/typplsys.htm.
The high gas flow through the electrodes prevents the creation of a charge
sheath, but this might happen if the electrodes were operated without the
high gas flow.
But the simplest and most direct approach may be very simple indeed; to
create a rotating plasma with a discharge between two rotating electrodes. electrode/ plasma / electrode When a plasma charge sheath is formed, the rapidly accelerating vortex
of atomic nuclei will produce a large and rapidly expanding electromagnetic
field.
The fusion reaction stops as the fuel runs out at the end of the pulse. Similar devices to the plasma rail gun already operate at below the critical
levels for fusion as tools for thin film deposition in industry. These operate
as a pulsing plasma gun at frequencies of up to 100hz. The idea of a fusion reactor that is light enough to fit into a suit case
is not new. Other reactors have been built that demonstrate the proof of
concept. See the fusor society for examples of reactors using inertial electrostatic
confinement. http://fusor.net Many scientists have suggested a fusion fuel of hydrogen – boron-11 for
a pulsed fusion engine using this device, because the energy of fusion can
be extracted electrically and does not give rise to the radioactive contaminants
that would prevent general use of other fusion fuel mixtures. The results
of Professor Tuck’s experiment with methane suggests that the fusion dynamics
of atomic nuclei within a charge sheath may not be the same as that calculated
for the same nuclei in a hot plasma. It may be much easier in a charge sheath
to achieve a fusion/fission reaction on the surface of a heavier atom such
as carbon, or even introducing something as heavy as mercury. The heavy
atom acting as a catalyst for fusion. The fusion device that could be developed from the charged sheath would
be light in weight, could be very inexpensive to build and operate, and
ideal for flying vehicles and portable power sources. When you have studied the pages you are welcome to join the discussion, but please note that any claims you make for or against these theories should be backed by scientific reasoning that can be developed from first principles. This information is copyright Peter Thomson 2001-2004 The following files on this site match your query/tornado/fusion/From_the_Tornado_and_Ball_Lightning_to_Controlled_Nuclear_Fusion.html Search for any topic in this forumSponsors:
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The plasma slug from the discharge accelerates down the space between the
tubes.
The tubes also start to wrap round each other, not fusing at this stage
because the walls of the electron sheath as they approach each other are spinning
in opposite directions and so repel. (1)
charge exclusion is now advanced, with the electrons ejected from the core
(5 shown blue) Some energetic electrons will be ejected towards the central
electrode, but most will form a tracery of filaments enveloping the core where
they will deliver their energy to excite the gas molecules, forming a glowing
ball much larger than the active core. The vortex of atomic nuclei (5 shown
red) is now well defined. Any atomic nuclei that are not forming part of
the high speed sheath will be ejected as a narrow beam of atomic nuclei moving
in the opposite direction. Both the electron and proton beams have been observed
by Lerner. 
