WO2016026368A1

WO2016026368A1 - Method and device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusionbased on cavitation bubble collapse

Info

Publication number: WO2016026368A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/085052
Authority: WO
Inventors: Darong CHEN; Liang Jiang; Haosheng Chen; Jiadao WANG; Dangguo LI
Original assignee: Tsinghua University
Current assignee: Tsinghua University
Priority date: 2014-08-22
Filing date: 2015-07-24
Publication date: 2016-02-25
Anticipated expiration: 2017-02-22
Also published as: CN104200849B; CN104200849A

Abstract

A method and device (100) of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse are provided. The method includes steps of : vacuolizating a deuterium-containing fluid medium to form a cavitation bubble flow; increasing a mass content in the cavitation bubble using ultrasonic mass transfer; making the cavitation bubble flow reach a surface of a workpiece (15) at a predetermined rate and enter an electric double layer effect range; subjecting the cavitation bubble to gravitational collapse under an electrostatic force so as to perform the deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion.

Description

METHOD AND DEVICE OF IMPLEMENTING DEUTERIUM-DEUTERIUM THERMONUCLEAR FUSIONBASED ON CAVITATION BUBBLE COLLAPSE

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and benefits of Chinese Patent Application Serial No. 201410416877.9, filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of P. R. China on August 22, 2014, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a method and device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion, especially a method and device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse.

BACKGROUND

Energy is an important pillar supporting the development of human civilization society, which brings about rapid development of society and economy after using the fossil energy such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, and subsequent nuclear fission energy to replace the firewood. Since fossil fuels and nuclear fission materials are non-renewable, people will have to face energy depletion crisis after years of exploration.

One way to obtain new energy is controlled thermonuclear fusion, and the lowest cost of fusion energy can be obtained from a deuterium-deuterium fusion. The deuterium has a large reserve in the sea, which can be used for hundreds of billions of years. However, the cross section of the deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction is very small, and the average kinetic energy of particles which could meet the minimum conditions of quantum tunneling is also above 5 keV. Obviously, it is still unable to construct a mechanical equipment to meet the requirement of extreme temperature and pressure, and there is no material able to withstand the extreme temperature and pressure as well. How to construct and maintain such an ultra-high temperature environment is an unsolved problem of science and technology.

To achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion, scientists have made efforts of exploration for several years, but no significant development has been achieved so far. Currently, thermonuclear fusion researches which have been heavily invested in developed countries are mainly inertial confinement fusion and magnetic confinement fusion researches.

Inertial confinement fusion is a technique using a beam of 192 pass converged single pulse laser with a power of 1MJ to bombard polyethylene pellets wrapped with a deuterium-tritium medium, and hopefully the polyethylene pellets are extruded by a high pressure resulting from an inertia force obtained by the vaporization of polyethylene in order to achieve a deuterium-tritium fusion. Although deuterium-tritium fusion has a lower temperature requirement, the force may not be increased with time due to the inertia function, such that the inertial confinement fusion has not been achieved so far.

Magnetic confinement fusion is a technology of nuclear fusion reaction caused by high-temperature plasma of magnetic confinement, using the same deuterium-tritium medium. It is difficult to control ultra-high temperature plasma with a high-rate movement, which becomes the main technical obstacle, it may not be guaranteed that the plasma sheath is not broken, and there are also several orders of magnitude to meet the requirements of the confinement time of deuterium-tritium fusion.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure seek to solve at least one of the problems existing in the related art to at least some extent. Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a method and device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse is provided. The method includes steps of: vacuolizating a deuterium-containing fluid medium to form a cavitation bubble flow； increasing a mass content in the cavitation bubble using ultrasonic mass transfer； making the cavitation bubble flow reach a surface of a workpiece at a predetermined rate and enter an electric double layer effect range； subjecting the cavitation bubble to gravitational collapse under an electrostatic force so as to perform the deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse is provided. The device includes: a high-pressure pump, a first diversion tube connected with the high-pressure pump via a first pipe, in which a fluid is capable of vacuolizating to form a cavitation bubble, a buffer chamber communicated with the first diversion tube, a reaction chamber communicated with the high-pressure pump via a second pipe and communicated with the buffer chamber, a nozzle disposed in the reaction chamber and communicated with the buffer chamber, and a workpiece spaced apart from the nozzle and disposed in the reaction chamber, piezoelectric ceramic pieces mounted at both sides of the buffer chamber.

Compared with the method and device in the related art, with the method and device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to embodiments of the present disclosure, a constantly increasing pressure environment is formed, which can ensure that the cavitation bubbles turn into the state of collapse, and hence a ultra-high temperature and pressure are formed in the center of cavitation bubbles so as to achieve the emission of neutrons. Meanwhile, the movement of high-temperature plasmas is constrained by the interface of cavitation bubbles so as to make the high-temperature plasmas in a relatively stationary state, such that it is possible to ensure the stabile presence of the plasma sheath for the basis of carrying on the fusion steadily.

Furthermore, the procedure of the control of the fusion reaction severity is carried out by the control of a medium flow rate, interfacial mass transfer efficiency and a workpiece of variable electrode potential as described in the present disclosure, and all are controlled by primary electrical power, all the reactions will be stopped immediately if the power is cut off, with the guarantee of the safe operation of the nuclear fusion device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following descriptions made with reference to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a method of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to an embodiment of the present disclosure；

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to an embodiment of the present disclosure；

Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a nozzle in a device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to an embodiment of the present disclosure；

Fig. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a first diversion tube in a device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will be made in detail to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiments described herein with reference to drawings are explanatory, illustrative, and used to generally understand the present disclosure. The embodiments shall not be construed to limit the present disclosure. The same or similar elements and the elements having same or similar functions are denoted by like reference numerals throughout the descriptions.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 3, a method of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to embodiments of the present disclosure comprises the following steps: S1, vacuolizating a deuterium-containing fluid medium to form a cavitation bubble flow； S2, increasing a mass content in the cavitation bubble using ultrasonic mass transfer； S3, making the cavitation bubble flow reach a surface of a workpiece at a predetermined rate and enter an electric double layer effect range； S4, subjecting the cavitation bubble to gravitational collapse under an electrostatic force so as to perform the deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion.

In step S1, a device 100 of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse is provided firstly. The device 100 includes: a high-pressure pump 10, a first diversion tube 11 connected with the high-pressure pump 10 via a first pipe, a buffer chamber 12 communicated with the first diversion tube 11, a reaction chamber 13 communicated with the high-pressure pump 10 via a second pipe and communicated with the buffer chamber 12, and a nozzle 14 disposed in the reaction chamber 13 and communicated with the buffer chamber 12, and a workpiece 15 spaced apart from the nozzle 14 and disposed in the reaction chamber 13, and piezoelectric ceramic pieces 121 mounted at both sides of the buffer chamber 12. A fluid is capable of vacuolizating to form a cavitation bubble.

Specifically, the first diversion tube 11 defines a stepped hole herein, the stepped hole includes a first hole 111 and a second hole 112 communicated with the first hole 111, a diameter of the second hole 112 is smaller than that of the first hole 111, preferably by 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm. An angle between a side of the first hole 111 and an end face of the adjacent second hole 112 is a right angle, and the length of the second hole 112 is 5 mm to 20 mm, the second hole 112 is communicated with the buffer chamber 12.

The nozzle 14 comprises an inner core over flow part 141 and a second diversion tube 142 fixedly connected with the inner core over flow part 141. The inner core over flow part 141 defines an ejection hole 147, a third hole 146 communicated with the ejection hole 147 and a shrinkage hole 145 communicated with the third hole 146. A diameter of the ejection hole 147 is smaller than that of the third hole 146, preferably by 0.2 mm-2.0mm. A diameter of the shrinkage hole 145 increases gradually in a direction away from the third hole 146, and a transition angle between a side of the third hole 146 and an end face of the adjacent ejection hole 147 is a right angle.

One end of the second diversion tube 142 is connected with the buffer chamber 12, and other end of the second diversion tube 142 is connected with the inner core over flow part 141. The second diversion tube 142 defines a stepped hole therein, and the stepped hole includes a fourth hole 144 and a fifth hole 143 communicated with the fourth hole 144. A diameter of the fourth hole 144 is smaller than that of the fifth hole 143. The fourth hole 144 is communicated with the shrinkage hole 145, and the fifth hole 143 is communicated with the buffer chamber 12.

The nozzle 14 is disposed opposite to the workpiece 15, and a distance d between an end of the ejection hole 147 in the nozzle 14 and a surface of the workpiece 15 ranges from 10 mm to 20 mm. The workpiece 15 is made of steel 45, pure aluminum or manganese steel 45. A roughness Ra of the surface of the workpiece 15 is equal to or smaller than 0.1 μm.

A deuterium-containing fluid medium is pumped into the first diversion tube 11 by a high-pressure pump 10, and the deuterium-containing fluid medium can be deuteroxide, deuterated acetone and so on. In the present embodiment, the deuterium-containing fluid medium is deuteroxide. Because a diameter of the first hole 111 of the first diversion tube 11 is bigger than that of the second hole 112, the deuterium-containing fluid medium is subjected to cavitation to form a cavitation bubble flow caused by partial negative pressure in the first diversion tube 11, and the cavitation bubble flow enters into the buffer chamber 12.

In step S2, piezoelectric ceramic pieces 121 are mounted at both sides of the buffer chamber 12, and driven to vibration by an ultrasonic generator and a power amplifier. Ultrasonic mass transfer is used to increase a mass content in the cavitation bubble. The ultrasonic vibration has a frequency of 15 kHz to 20 kHz, and an amplitude greater than 100 mm.

In step S3, the cavitation bubble flow enters into the nozzle 14. Because the transition angle between the side of the third hole 146 and the end face of the adjacent ejection hole 147 is a right angle, and the diameter of the ejection hole 147 is smaller than the diameter of the third hole 146 by 0.2 to 2.0 mm, so that it is possible to ensure the flowing stability of the cavitation bubble flow.

The cavitation bubble flow approaches to the surface of the workpiece under an outlet pressure of the ejection hole 147, and the reduction of the distance between the surface of the workpiece and the cavitation bubble results in an increasing micro pressure between the surface of the workpiece and the cavitation bubble because of squeeze effect, thus squeezing the cavitation bubble. Since the injection pressure of the cavitation bubble flow decreases with time (distance) , the rate of the cavitation bubble to approach the surface of the workpiece also comes down, such that the gradient of increasing temperature is smaller than the thermal capacity of the cavitation bubble wall. If an adiabatic condition cannot be formed, there will be a temporary stasis procedure when the cavitation bubble is squeezed to a certain diameter, the heat of the cavitation bubble will quickly diffuse to liquid medium though the cavitation bubble wall, causing the temperature of the cavitation bubble to quickly drop, such that the substance of the cavitation bubble cannot be in the state of plasma. In order to transfer the cavitation bubble to the controlled range of the electric double layer, the rate of the cavitation bubble flow reaching the surface of the workpiece must be controlled. When the rate of the cavitation bubble flow exiting the ejection hole is equal to or greater than 20 m/s and an exiting pressure of the cavitation bubble flow is 5 to 20 Bar, it is required that a distance d between the nozzle 14 and the workpiece 15 should be 10 to 20 mm, which makes sure that the predetermined rate of the cavitation bubble flow reaching the surface of the workpiece is not less than 10 m/s. If the distance between the nozzle 14 and the workpiece 15 is too long, the cavitation bubble cannot get in the controlled range of the electric double layer； if the distance between the nozzle 14 and the workpiece 15 is too short, a part of the cavitation bubble will accumulate on the surface of the workpiece, such that the part of cavitation bubble cannot get in the controlled range of the electric double layer.

In order to reduce the interference between the cavitation bubble and the cavitation bubble and between the cavitation bubble and the surface of the workpiece, and to prevent the cavitation bubble from failing before collapse, it is necessary to add to the deuterium-containing fluid medium an anionic surfactant, such as sodium lauryl sulphate or sodium dodecyl sulfonate, and molecules of the anionic surfactant have nonpolar terminals in a gas phase and the polar terminals in a liquid phase. In the present embodiment, the surfactant is sodium lauryl sulphate. There is still a great quantity of the cavitation bubbles failing because of the insufficient surfactant, and over amount of surfactant may reduce the electrokinetic potential of the cavitation bubble and the electrode potential of the workpiece, such that electrostatic force of the electric double layer with enough acceleration has no effect on the cavitation bubble. A normal amount of surfactant ranges from 0.15 to 0.5 mM/L. An over low amount of surfactant may reduce the interference resistance of the cavitation bubble, and an over high amount of surfactant may make the surfactant aggregate into micelles and hence reduce the interference resistance of the cavitation bubble as well.

Because the value of the electrokinetic potential of the cavitation bubble caused by cavitation is negative, the value of the electrode potential of the workpiece must be negative. The electric double layer has a cationic property formed in the fluid medium. When the cavitation bubble enters in the controlled range of the electric double layer, there will be an attractive electrostatic force between the cavitation bubble and the workpiece according to the principle of opposites attract, and the rate and acceleration of the cavitation bubble moving to the surface of the workpiece are formed. As the distance between the cavitation bubble and the surface of the workpiece is gradually reduced, the electrostatic force will increase exponentially, as well as the rate of the cavitation bubble approaching the surface of the workpiece and the pressure caused by the cavitation bubble and the surface of the workpiece together. In the environment with the pressure increasing constantly, the cavitation bubble is drastically squeezed, the volume of the cavitation bubble is drastically reduced, and the substance of the cavitation bubble will turn into a high-temperature plasma state.

To achieve a gradually increasing rate of the cavitation bubble approaching the surface of the workpiece and an environment with a gradually increasing pressure formed by the cavitation bubble and the surface of workpiece together, it is required that an electrode potential of the workpiece materials should be below-500 mV. Calculations and experiments show that the cavitation bubble cannot get in the controlled range of the electric double layer when the electrode potential is higher than-500 mV.

The control of the electrode potential of the surface of workpiece can carry out the control of thermonuclear fusion procedure, the present embodiment provides a process to control the electrode potential of the surface of workpiece by a capacitance of the electric double layer, which requires a width of an electrochemical window of the capacitance electrode materials of greater than 3.5 V, and an electrode potential in a controlled range of from-0.5 V to-8.0 V.

Meanwhile, the permanent resident air-core determined by the surface microstructure may expand to be a bubble in a negative pressure environment, becoming an obstacle of the cavitation bubble approaching the surface of the workpiece. To minimize the effect of the surface gas core, it is required that a roughness Ra of the surface of the workpiece is equal to or smaller than 0.1 μm when the workpiece is prepared.

After turning into the high-temperature plasma state, the substance of the cavitation bubble occupies a smaller space, meanwhile, the wall of the cavitation bubble will be further shrunk without a pressure of external environment, obtaining an ultra-high temperature of the cavitation bubble. This procedure belongs to a gravitational collapse procedure of the cavitation bubble itself.

When the temperature of the cavitation bubble center meets the conditions of quantum tunneling, a small amount of particles may be emitted and quickly take away part of the center energy so as to cool down the central zone of the cavitation bubble quickly, breaking the balance between electronic degeneracy pressure and gravity, which leads to a lack of radiation pressure against the pressure of the cavitation bubble wall, and the cavitation bubble will continue to collapse, while a temperature increases sharply. If the substance of the cavitation bubble is enough to maintain the imbalance between electronic degeneracy pressure and gravity, the cavitation bubble will collapse to a minimum and continue to produce large amounts of neutrons, carrying out a deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion.

With the method of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse according to embodiments of the present disclosure, a constantly increasing pressure environment is formed, which can ensure that the cavitation bubbles are in the state of collapse, and hence a ultra-high temperature and pressure are formed in the center of cavitation bubbles so as to achieve the emission of neutrons. Meanwhile, the movement of high-temperature plasmas is constrained by the interface of cavitation bubbles so as to make the high-temperature plasmas in a relatively stationary state, such that it is possible to ensure the stabile presence of the plasma sheath for the basis of carrying on the fusion steadily.

Moreover, the procedure of the control of the fusion reaction severity is carried out by the control of a medium flow rate, interfacial mass transfer efficiency and a workpiece of variable electrode potential as described in the present embodiment, and all are controlled by primary electrical power, all the reactions will be stopped immediately if the power is cut off, with the guarantee of the safe operation of the nuclear fusion device.

Reference throughout this specification to “ an embodiment, ” “ some embodiments, ” “ one embodiment ” , “ another example, ” “ an example, ” “ aspecific example, ” or “ some examples, ” means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. Thus, the appearances of the phrases such as “ in some embodiments, ” “ in one embodiment ” , “ in an embodiment ” , “ in another example, ” “ in an example, ” “ in a specific example, ” or “ in some examples, ” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment or example of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples.

Although explanatory embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments cannot be construed to limit the present disclosure, and changes, alternatives, and modifications can be made in the embodiments without departing from spirit, principles and scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

A method of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse, comprising steps of:

vacuolizating a deuterium-containing fluid medium to form a cavitation bubble flow；

increasing a mass content in the cavitation bubble using ultrasonic mass transfer；

making the cavitation bubble flow reach a surface of a workpiece at a predetermined rate and enter an electric double layer effect range；

subjecting the cavitation bubble to gravitational collapse under an electrostatic force so as to perform the deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion.
The method according to claim 1, wherein an electrode potential of the workpiece is below-500 mV.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined rate of the cavitation bubble flow reaching the surface of the workpiece is not less than 10 m/s.
The method according to claim 3, wherein in the step of making the cavitation bubble flow reach the surface of the workpiece at the predetermined rate and enter the electric double layer effect range, the cavitation bubble flow is ejected from an ejection hole of a nozzle to the surface of the workpiece, a rate of the cavitation bubble flow exiting the ejection hole is equal to or greater than 20 m/swhile an exiting pressure of the cavitation bubble flow is 5 to 20 Bar, and a distance between the nozzle and the workpiece is 10 to 20 mm.
The method according to claim 4, wherein in the step of making the cavitation bubble flow reach the surface of the workpiece at the predetermined rate and enter the electric double layer effect range, an anionic surfactant is added to the deuterium-containing fluid medium, and molecules of the anionic surfactant have nonpolar terminals in a gas phase and the polar terminals in a liquid phase.
The method according to claim 5, wherein the surfactant is sodium lauryl sulphate or sodium dodecyl sulfonate.
The method according to claim 5, wherein an amount of the surfactant ranges from 0.15 to 0.5 mM/L.
The method according to claim 1, wherein a width of an electrochemical window is greater than 3.5 V, and the electrode potential ranges from -0.5 V to -0.8 V.
The method according to claim 1, wherein ultrasonic vibration has a frequency of 15 kHz to 20 kHz, and an amplitude greater than 100 mm.
A device of implementing deuterium-deuterium thermonuclear fusion based on cavitation bubble collapse, comprising:

a high-pressure pump,

a first diversion tube connected with the high-pressure pump via a first pipe, in which a fluid is capable of vacuolizating to form a cavitation bubble,

a buffer chamber communicated with the first diversion tube,

a reaction chamber communicated with the high-pressure pump via a second pipe and communicated with the buffer chamber,

a nozzle disposed in the reaction chamber and communicated with the buffer chamber, and

a workpiece spaced apart from the nozzle and disposed in the reaction chamber,

piezoelectric ceramic pieces mounted at both sides of the buffer chamber.
The device according to claim 10, wherein the first diversion tube defines a first hole and a second hole communicated with the first hole, a diameter of the second hole is smaller than that of the first hole, an angle between a side of the first hole and an end face of the adjacent second hole is a right angle, and the second hole is communicated with the buffer chamber.
The device according to claim 10, wherein the nozzle comprises an inner core over flow part and a second diversion tube fixedly connected with the inner core over flow part, the inner core over flow part defines an ejection hole, a third hole communicated with the ejection hole and a shrinkage hole communicated with the third hole, a diameter of the ejection hole is smaller than that of the third hole, a diameter of the shrinkage hole increases gradually in a direction away from the third hole, a transition angle between a side of the third hole and an end face of the adjacent ejection hole is a right angle, the second diversion tube defines a stepped hole therein which comprises a fourth hole and a fifth hole communicated with the fourth hole, a diameter of the fourth hole is smaller than that of the fifth hole, the fourth hole is communicated with the shrinkage hole, and the fifth hole is communicated with the buffer chamber.
The device according to claim 11, wherein the diameter of the second hole is smaller than the diameter of the first hole by 0.2 to 2.0 mm.
The device according to claim 12, wherein the diameter of the ejection hole is smaller than the diameter of the third hole by 0.2 to 2.0 mm.
The device according to claim 12, wherein the nozzle is disposed opposite to the workpiece, and a distance between an end of the ejection hole in the nozzle and a surface of the workpiece ranges from 10 mm to 20 mm.
The device according to claim 10, wherein a roughness Ra of the surface of the workpiece is equal to or smaller than 0.1 μm.
The device according to claim 10, wherein a material of the workpiece is steel 45, pure aluminum or manganese steel 45.