It's quite thick :( (see story below)Had no inspiration (and no sleep) for the project lately, then Fernando called up at 1.20am to ask me out for a cycling trip. Took the opportunity to find some inspiration. I couldn't suggest a destination though, but he decided to come down first anyway. I went back to my work and forgot all about the destination problem until he called up again (felt like only a minute later), saying that he was already downstairs... Great, so we rode randomly for half an hour, before seeing the time, I casually suggested Geylang, which would be an interesting social experiment. Big mistake, because I couldn't change Fernando's mind after that. -_- I have a funding proposal to write!
So... we were at Geylang in the morning. An amazing number of cabs were slowing navigating those streets for such an hour; the drivers probably doing some shopping.
I made haste on my bike, to avoid being propositioned... and thereby almost got into an accident, but quickly weaved to the front of a parked car, pulled both brakes, and almost planted my face on the bonnet. I swear: as I recovered, I saw the amorous couple inside undergo fission..., with faces telling me that the shock I had imparted on them removed a lot of binding energy in their system for the rest of the night. I pretended not to notice, with the best impression of a poker face I had, though.
Then, Fernando's stem plate loosened. Or rather, I should use the continuous participle... So, as time ran out, I couldn't help but to think, "Heh, heh, serves you right for choosing this location." But he managed to tighten the screws with a flat edge screwdriver (found one at a petrol kiosk, with a kind man's help) on the return journey, just in time as he was starting to cycle with both hands on the stem.
Learned many new things as I was typing the proposal. The project underwent many changes: aluminium electrodes, turbomolecular pump... completely new vacuum pipeline design.
Valves are really expensive! Did away with the manifold, vent valve, isolation valve, evacuation valve, roughing pumpline etc. from removing the oil diffusion pump. An oil diffusion pump is more readily available, and has a lower base cost, but the pipeline design entailed, extra accessories required for it etc. are too expensive.
Solved the base plate problem once and for all. I devised a method to engineer threaded bolt mounts from aluminium and epoxy ;) ... that way we finalized on a borosilicate glass base plate. Then came up with a 'whistle' design for the hydrogen inlet; and came up with a slightly new way of arranging the ion source feedthroughs.
Using some nice design of copper rods/epoxy tracks for insulation eliminates most of the problems of movement/shorting of electrical components during the operation of the vacuum pumps. I did some quick math (not so quick... I forgot my fundamental fluid dynamics, but I was saved by my thick SSEF project logbook) and realized that the pressure wasn't that high anyway... teflon-insulated hookup wires with stoppers would have done. But oh well.
So... we were at Geylang in the morning. An amazing number of cabs were slowing navigating those streets for such an hour; the drivers probably doing some shopping.
I made haste on my bike, to avoid being propositioned... and thereby almost got into an accident, but quickly weaved to the front of a parked car, pulled both brakes, and almost planted my face on the bonnet. I swear: as I recovered, I saw the amorous couple inside undergo fission..., with faces telling me that the shock I had imparted on them removed a lot of binding energy in their system for the rest of the night. I pretended not to notice, with the best impression of a poker face I had, though.
Then, Fernando's stem plate loosened. Or rather, I should use the continuous participle... So, as time ran out, I couldn't help but to think, "Heh, heh, serves you right for choosing this location." But he managed to tighten the screws with a flat edge screwdriver (found one at a petrol kiosk, with a kind man's help) on the return journey, just in time as he was starting to cycle with both hands on the stem.
Learned many new things as I was typing the proposal. The project underwent many changes: aluminium electrodes, turbomolecular pump... completely new vacuum pipeline design.
Valves are really expensive! Did away with the manifold, vent valve, isolation valve, evacuation valve, roughing pumpline etc. from removing the oil diffusion pump. An oil diffusion pump is more readily available, and has a lower base cost, but the pipeline design entailed, extra accessories required for it etc. are too expensive.
Solved the base plate problem once and for all. I devised a method to engineer threaded bolt mounts from aluminium and epoxy ;) ... that way we finalized on a borosilicate glass base plate. Then came up with a 'whistle' design for the hydrogen inlet; and came up with a slightly new way of arranging the ion source feedthroughs.
Using some nice design of copper rods/epoxy tracks for insulation eliminates most of the problems of movement/shorting of electrical components during the operation of the vacuum pumps. I did some quick math (not so quick... I forgot my fundamental fluid dynamics, but I was saved by my thick SSEF project logbook) and realized that the pressure wasn't that high anyway... teflon-insulated hookup wires with stoppers would have done. But oh well.
Logbook of my previous research project.I was about to go about the issue of calculating the temperature for thermionic emission (and hence, for a given current/applied voltage - I assume that the system is adiabatic in vacuum - the lower bound approximation of time required to attain thermionic emission i.e. ionize the hydrogen. Then, by a chance Googling effort, I realized that Leslie Dewan(?) did the calculations already... although I'm missing most of the quantitative parameters. I'll make do with >1000K for now, and come back to calculate the temperature when I have a mood for math.
There was some worry about the flexure of the end plates. I made an upper bound approximation of the stress/pressure on the housing joints of the end plates (from atmospheric compression on the central section... as in, the 'negative' of the ring forming the housing joint)... and had some astronomical numbers. Hence, the end plates will flex and penetrate the Earth's core and emerge from the other end of the globe, with enough flexure for about 10^6 m more... OK, so I had to labour through the use of Young's modulus properly, then fixed the calculations and my predictions agreed with experimental observations from the Rutgers University cyclotron project. Wonderful.
Lastly, I owe Niell a great deal for the inspiration on the pump design. I'd have gone ahead with 321 stainless steel (relative permeability <1.03) and have sad time "shimming the field" (in his words) at the end of the day if not for his advice. Some earlier work with the math for the stiffness of bicycle wheels helped out too. And the free time I had at Geylang. Postscript: After getting home from the red light district, and seeing teenage... workers... who were around my age, I did think for a moment: what is there to get out of the business. The most immediate answer is of course, money. There are other reasons of course - and I respect anybody's course of action so long as it was after firm reasoning and upheld with consistency, but I realized something on the matter of money. As I saw Niell's reply to my personal question regarding the immense amount of inertia to overcome in physics; and as I realized that my trip to Geylang didn't yield anything - but Niell's reply and my hours of toiling on pen, and paper, and behind these two computer screens did - I came to the conclusion that, really, money can't solve everything. Which gives me reason to like physics.
There was some worry about the flexure of the end plates. I made an upper bound approximation of the stress/pressure on the housing joints of the end plates (from atmospheric compression on the central section... as in, the 'negative' of the ring forming the housing joint)... and had some astronomical numbers. Hence, the end plates will flex and penetrate the Earth's core and emerge from the other end of the globe, with enough flexure for about 10^6 m more... OK, so I had to labour through the use of Young's modulus properly, then fixed the calculations and my predictions agreed with experimental observations from the Rutgers University cyclotron project. Wonderful.
Lastly, I owe Niell a great deal for the inspiration on the pump design. I'd have gone ahead with 321 stainless steel (relative permeability <1.03) and have sad time "shimming the field" (in his words) at the end of the day if not for his advice. Some earlier work with the math for the stiffness of bicycle wheels helped out too. And the free time I had at Geylang. Postscript: After getting home from the red light district, and seeing teenage... workers... who were around my age, I did think for a moment: what is there to get out of the business. The most immediate answer is of course, money. There are other reasons of course - and I respect anybody's course of action so long as it was after firm reasoning and upheld with consistency, but I realized something on the matter of money. As I saw Niell's reply to my personal question regarding the immense amount of inertia to overcome in physics; and as I realized that my trip to Geylang didn't yield anything - but Niell's reply and my hours of toiling on pen, and paper, and behind these two computer screens did - I came to the conclusion that, really, money can't solve everything. Which gives me reason to like physics.
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