Multiphase Science and Technology A Quarterly

ISSN for PRINT: 0276-1459

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2005, Volume17

Issue 3

106 pages

DOI: 10.1615/MultScienTechn.v17.i3

Issue price - $140.00

R. P. Taleyarkhan
Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN, USA

Richard T. Lahey, Jr.
Center for Multiphase Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590, USA

R. I. Nigmatulin
President Bashkir Academy of Sciences Kirov Str. 6, Ufa 45025, Russia

Energetic bubble implosions can generate sonoluminescence (SL) light flashes along with extreme states of compression and temperatures. In cavitation experiments with chilled deuterated acetone, neutron and tritium nuclear emissions were detected, indicative of thermonuclear fusion. The neutron emissions were time correlated with SL light emission. The gamma ray emissions were delayed as would be expected from neutron slowing down and capture. Control experiments with normal acetone did not result in tritium activity nor neutron emissions. Fusion was observed during experiments in which the nanoscale nucleation of bubbles were induced in chilled deuterated acetone using a pulse neutron generator as well as with an isotope neutron source. Video images clearly indicate the existinence of complex bubble clusters when bubble fusion occurs, and also the formation of comet-like structures which were detrimental to bubble nuclear fusion. Hydrodynamic shock code simulations have supported the experimental findings and indicate temperatures during implosion in the 108K range along with Gbar shock pressures in the imploding bubbles within bubble clusters, but not in single bubble environments. Various thermal-hydraulic aspects of the experimentation as well as nuclear emission data are presented along with discussions related to key technical challenges concerning modeling and experimentation..

DOI: 10.1615/MultScienTechn.v17.i3.10 Download article, 191-224 pages

Article price - $45.00

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