Nuclear fusion technology may get a big boost from an unexpected place: mayonnaise.
In a new study published in May in the journal Physical ReviewScientists put cream sauce in a churning wheel machine and spun it to see what conditions would make it flow.
“We use mayonnaise because it behaves like a solid, but when it is subjected to a pressure gradient, it starts to flow,” said the study’s lead author. Arindam BanerjeeA mechanical engineer at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania said in statement.
This process could help explain the physics that occurs at the extremely high temperatures and pressures inside nuclear fusion reactors — without having to create these extreme conditions.
Related to: The world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor has finally been completed, but it won’t be operational for another 15 years.
Nuclear fusion Nuclear power produces helium from hydrogen in the cores of stars. In theory, helium could be a nearly limitless source of clean energy on Earth—if the reaction could produce more energy than it takes.
It’s a tough task; stellar fusion occurs at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius), According to NASAThe star’s immense gravity forces hydrogen atoms to stick together, overcoming their natural repulsion. But on Earth, there are no such crushing pressures, so man-made fusion reactors must be operated. 10 times hotter than the sun.
To reach these incredible temperatures, scientists use several methods, including one called inertial confinement.
In the process, physicists freeze pea-sized pellets of gas — typically a mix of heavy isotopes, or versions of hydrogen — in metal capsules. They then blast the pellets with a laser, heating the gas to 400 million degrees Fahrenheit (222 million degrees Celsius) in a flash — ideally turning it into a plasma where fusion can occur, according to the statement.
Unfortunately, the hydrogen gas wants to expand, causing the molten metal to explode. Before the hydrogen has time to fuseThis explosion occurs when the metal capsule enters an unstable phase and begins to flow.
Banerjee’s team realized that molten metal behaves like mayonnaise at low temperatures: it can be elastic, meaning it bounces when pressed, plastic, meaning it doesn’t bounce, or flow.
“If you put pressure on mayonnaise, it starts to deform, but if you release the pressure, it returns to its original shape,” he said. “So there’s an elastic phase followed by a stable plastic phase. The next phase is when it starts to flow, and that’s when the instability starts.”
In the new study, the researchers placed mayonnaise in a machine that accelerated the egg-oil emulsion until it began to flow. They then described the conditions under which the sauce transitioned between a plastic, elastic and unstable state.
“We found the conditions under which resilient recovery was possible, and how it could be maximized to delay or suppress instability altogether,” Banerjee said.
The study also found conditions that would allow more energy to be produced.
Of course, superheated metal capsules are different from mayonnaise in many ways, so it remains to be seen whether the team’s findings can be translated into plasma pellets many times hotter than the Sun.
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