Jack,
If anomalous cooling in Nitinol (putative) is of any interest - here is about the simplest experiment which can tell an experimenter something worth knowing. I've not done it, but it is now on my list. It would be to compare the relative temperature rise using simple resistance heating of a known mass of electrolyte and identical watt-hours of input - using two wires of similar resistance, one of which is suspected to cool anomalously (Nitinol) and the other to heat anomalously (Constantan or Monel). No water-splitting or phase-change here to confuse things, just simple heating of the same mass of water in otherwise identical runs - and logging temperature rise over time with a precision thermometer - of each wire. My guess is that Nitinol will supply slightly less heat to the water than Constantan for the same electrical input. But this is based on Ahern's results with specialty nano-powder, so the expectation may not apply. Both wires should be etched to provide Casimir porosity. In checking just now - the electrical resistivity of Constantan and Nitinol are not the same, but close enough to get identical resistance in two sample test wires. IOW - by varying the length of wires (or gauge or both) one can get the same resistance. By using the same wetted surface area with wires of different lengths, fairly accurate comparative results should be possible even though there is slightly more constantan by length, since the wetted area is the same. The results would not be a perfect indicator of an anomaly between the two types of nickel alloy - but could inspire enough confidence to move onto a more accurate (and expensive) technique. From: Jack Cole Jones, I'm still working the kinks out of the experimental procedures. At first glance, the behavior doesn't appear to be different than the nickel and tungsten. What I am working on now is a three electrode system. One is made out of nitinol, and I'm using this as a heating element only. Another is made out of nitinol of the same length as the one used for the heating element. The third is made from stainless steel. With the Android control system, I am running DC electrolysis for 9 seconds (16 watts) and then pulse 80-90 watts of 94khz AC (100 milliseconds) through either the heating element or axially through the cathode. What you end up with is a comparison of runs of pulsing the AC through the cathode vs. pulsing it through the nitinol used as a heating element. I have to make a new cathode and heating element and start over making certain the impendance is matched for both. The idea is that you have one nitinol wire loaded with hydrogen and one that is not loaded with hydrogen. I'm thinking the HFAC current may trigger LENR in the hydrogen loaded cathode but not in the heating element. I thought the nitinol is intriguing for the reasons you noted (titanium and nickel being used in past experiments) and its shape changing when heated. I think the next thing to try will be a similar setup using a combination of tungsten and nitinol paired together. Then we'll be running with 3 materials that have shown results from other researchers. Also, thank you for the thoughts on endotherm possibilities. I'll keep that in mind if I see something anomalous. Jack On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 8:29 AM, Jones Beene <[email protected]> wrote: Jack, Nitinol is a interesting choice since both nickel and titanium are proton conductors with a history of positive results in LENR - and the wire is commonly available. Plus there is the strange "memory" effect (which could be utilized for audible resonance). It appears from your other pages that you've done simple calorimetry to see if there is evidence of thermal gain using nickel, tungsten etc. Even though those results were apparently inconclusive, does Nitinol appear to give markedly different results from the others? I said "different" instead of better - since it should be mentioned that in Ahern's testing for EPRI there was another anomaly - cooling. IIRC it was an alloy of nickel and titanium (embedded in zirconia) which provided the appearance of endotherm - the mysterious disappearance of input energy. It might help to do an acid etch of the wire as the endotherm is associated with nano-porosity (and Casimir - which can be both an attractive force or repellent - depending on geometry changes) If you were seeking anomalous endotherm, which could be equally important (theoretically) to gainful exotherm, the experiment would probably need different parameters - such as lower voltage DC and surface treatment for nanostructure - but it could be worth the effort. Adding energy to achieve a lower thermal state may seem to be counterproductive at first glance, but perhaps it is the one detail that will make everything understandable. There was a bit of evidence that the quantumheat.org folks saw a bit of endotherm and were trying to explain it way - rather than to deal with it as part of the package of Ni-H oddities. Jones From: Jack Cole I've been conducting a new series of electrolysis experiments with Nitinol (56% nickel/44% titanium). I did a little video demonstrating nitinol's effect of contracting when heated while running an electrolysis experiment. I'm using KOH as the electrolyte. May be of interest to some here. Seems to me that this alloy may be promising for LENR. http://www.lenr-coldfusion.com/2013/01/23/automated-android-electrolysis-sys tem-nitinol-demonstration/ Best regards, Jack
