Ultrasonic Cavitation and Piezonuclear Reactions

SOPO2012

8th International Symposium on Cavitation

Singapore, 13th - 16th August 2012

Cardone Fabio1, Cherubini Giovanni3, Mignani Roberto2, 4, Perconti Walter5, Pessa Eliano6, Petrucci Andrea1, 4, Rosetto Francesca3, Spera Guido7

1Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati (ISMN — CNR) 2GNFM, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica “F.Severi”

3ARPA Radiation Laboratories 4Dipartimento di Fisica “E.Amaldi” , Università degli Studi “Roma Tre”

5Climate and Applied Meteorology, ISPRA, 6Centro Interdipartimentale di Scienze Cognitive, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

7CRA - IS.Pa.Ve., Chemical Section

Piezonuclear Reactions:Nuclear Reactions induced by Pressure

Pressure suitably exerted on medium or heavy weight stable nuclides generates nuclear reactions of new type with clear and reproducible emission of neutrons.

• Piezonuclear Reactions are predicted by the phenomenological theory called Deformed Special Relativity (DSR) (F. Cardone, R. Mignani)

• 1

• DSR states that piezonuclear reactions are triggered if in a experiment involving - medium or heavy weight stable nuclides one succeeds in concentrating - an amount of energy E greater than 367.5 GeV - in a microscopical region of space V smaller than a threshold volume V0 - and in an interval of time t shorter than a threshold interval t0

Piezonuclear Reactions and Deformed Special Relativity

What does pressure suitably excerted mean?

How do we translate these conditions

Concentrate E > 367.5 GeVin a microscopical space V < V0

in an interval of time t < t0

into experiment ?

A compressing mechanism is needed capable of concentrating and hence amplifying (E > 367.5 GeV) energy density by squeezing heavy or medium weight stable nuclides into a decreasing volume (V < V0)

followed by a sudden, quick and catastrophic mechanism capable of a further compression that releases instantaneously (t < t0) the loaded energy onto the entrapped nuclides

Compressing mechanism

Catastrophic collapse

Cavitation as source of compression and catastrophic collapse

• If pressure excerted on a liquid falls below the liquid vapour pressure, vapour bubbles form, conversely a rapid increase of pressure brings about a violent collapse of these bubbles.

• These phenomena are known to pit metals and are source of corrosion.

• The pitted surface of metals indicates that the collapse of bubbles induced by a sudden increase of pressure manages to concentrate in small volumes a great amount of energy, i.e. to create particularly high energy density conditions.

Ultrasonic Cavitation

experiments

and their piezonuclear

evidences

Cavitation of water - concentrations of elementsCould cavitation of water change the concentration of the chemical elements contained in it?

Comparison of concentrations before and after cavitation

decrease of light elements and increase of heavy ones,

uranium in particular

First set of experiments (1999)

• liquid: 100 ml bidistilled deionised H2O in optical flint glass• ultrasound device: with cooled transducers and sonotrode and stepped shaped titanium horn• frequency and power: 20 kHz 630 W• time: 210 minutes

• analyses of the concentration of elements (Z= 1 to 92) in water before and after cavitation by

• mass atomic absorption• cyclotron spectrometry (ICR-ion cyclotron resonance)• mass spectrometry

• analyses of the vacuum chamber of these instruments• analyses of possible contributions to concentration changes due to impurities

• from sonotrode tip, flint glass, dry residue of water samples

Cavitation of water - concentrations of heavy elements Could cavitation bring about variations of the concentration of chemical elements contained in it?

Second set of experiments (2001)

• liquid: 30 ml bidistilled deionised H2O in pyrex vessel• ultrasound device: not cooled transducers and stepped shaped aluminium horn• frequency and power: 20 kHz 300 W• time: 4 intervals of 10 munites of cavitation with cooling intervals of 15 minutes between any two of them

• analyses of the concentration of elements (A= 210 to 270 amu) in water before (blank) and after cavitation plus analyses of the background (content of the vacuum chamber)

Comparison of concentrations before and after cavitation

Increase in the mass range 210 - 238Increase and then decrease in the mass range 238 - 270 (radionuclides)

Cavitation of water - concentrations of radionuclides Search for artificial radionuclides

Third set of experiments (2002)

• liquid: 300 ml of bidistilled deionised H2O in pyrex beaker• ultrasound device: not cooled transducers and stepped shaped aluminium horn• frequency and power: 20 kHz 100 W• time: intervals of 15 munites of cavitation followed by cooling intervals of 15 minutes

• analyses of the concentration of elements (90 to 150 and 200 to 255 amu) in water before (blank), after and during cavitation by

• peristaltic pump that sucked water into an• Inducted Coupled Plasma (ICP) Mass Spectrometer (MS) (9000 °C)

• analyses of noise (vacuum chamber)• analyses scanning times: 10 sec and 150 sec

Analysis of the concentrations during cavitationthe ICP-MS identified a mass of 137.93 amu

whose concentration cycled: appearance, increase, decrease, disappearance.Interpeted as a radionuclide with t1/2=12s Europium 138

From: cavitation of bidistilled deionised water

andsearch for changes of concentration

To: Cavitation of solutions of elements

and search for neutrons

Fourth set of experiments (2005)Cavitation of solutions - neutron search - bubble detectors

Does the variation of concentration of elements in cavitation mean also emission of neutrons and gamma rays ?

• liquid: 250 - 500 ml of 1 ppm solutions of Lithium, Aluminium, Iron (LiCl, AlCl3, FeCl3, Fe(NO)3) in bidistilled deionised H2O in bottles of Schott Duran Glass• ultrasound device: modified ultrasonic plastic welder with transducers and sonotrode cooled by cold compressed air and a steel conical frustum as horn• frequency and power: 20 kHz 100 W• time: 90 minutes of continuous cavitation

Neutrons only from Iron solutions after 40 minutes - no gamma rays

Fifth set of experiments (2006)

• liquid: 250 ml of 1 ppm, 10 ppm solutions of Iron (FeCl3, Fe(NO)3) in bidistilled deionised H2O in bottles of Schott Duran Glass• ultrasound device: modified ultrasonic plastic welder with transducers and sonotrode cooled by cold compressed air and a steel conical frustum as horn• frequency and power: 20 kHz 100 W and 130 W• time: 90 minutes of continuous cavitation

Different neutron doses and dose rates for

different concentrations of iron and different ultrasound powers

no gamma rays

Cavitation of solutions - neutron search - bubble detectorsDoes the variation of concentration of elements in cavitation mean also emission of neutrons and

gamma?

Concentration

10 ppm

Amplitude

Power

Energy

50 %

100 Watt

0.54 MJoule

70 %

130 Watt

0.70 MJoule

1 ppm

0 ppm

Different neutron doses and dose rates for different concentrations

and different ultrasound powers

Graph of graphs

In each single graph there is time on the horizontal axis and neutron dose (nSv) on the vertical axis.

On the compound graph we have amplitude or power on the horizontal axis and concentration on the vertical axis.

Fifth set of experiments (2006)

Cavitation of solutions - neutron search - track detectors• liquid: 250 ml of 10 ppm solutions of Iron (FeCl3) in bidistilled deionised H2O in bottles of Schott Duran Glass• frequency and power: 20 kHz 130 W• time: 90 minutes of continuous cavitation

CR39 detectorsNeutron tracks from

nuclear reactor and from cavitation of iron solution

CR39 detectors and bubble detectors

Sixth set of experiments (2007)

Cavitation of solutions - neutron search - BF3

• liquid: 250 ml of 1000 ppm solutions of Iron (FeCl3) in bidistilled deionised H2O in bottles of Schott Duran Glass• frequency and power: 20 kHz 113 W• time: 90 minutes of continuous cavitation plus 90 with ultrasound off

Bursts of neutronsdetected by the Boron Trifluoride

detector

Burst of neutrons emitted by the solution of iron during cavitation

Time coincidence of bursts of neutrons registered by BF3 and bubble detector

From liquids to solids• Cavitation is the experimental mean in

order to bring about piezonuclear reactions

• During bubble collapse iron atoms, entrapped in the liquid/vapour (gas) interface, get accelerated towards each other

• Basic requirements: the presence of micro-cavities (bubbles) that transform an ultrasonic wave into a shock wave and presence of iron

Solids, like iron-rich rocks or cast iron, do contain micro-cavities as wellCould we imagine that the same processes that happen during cavitation of liquids, as we have seen so far, might take place if we compressed solids?

Compression by ultrasounds of iron-rich rocks (Granite, Basalt) or

of steel bars (that contain micro-cavities) produce cavitation that generates piezonuclear reactions

with emissions ofbursts of neutrons, transmutations and emission of alpha particles

without any gamma rays

Experimental evidences

Conclusions and remarks• It exists cavitation and it exists Nuclear Cavitation

• E > 367.5 GeV , V < V0 , t < t0

• crucial dimensions and crucial reciprocal position of the sonotrode and the cavitation chamber (no ultrasonic cleaners)

• no emission of neutrons before 40 minutes (unless you use solids)

• THESE neutrons are difficult to be measured• anisotropic bursts are very hard to be detected (by active detectors above all)

• bubble detectors like the ones we used (called DEFENDERS) are no more available from BTI and the available ones called (BD) are not sensitive enough for neutron emission from liquids, but they are good for neutron emisson from solids

• alpha emissions are easier to be detected• but not in liquids because alpha particles cannot escape from the cavitation

chamber

• solids have to be used

Thank you very muchfor your attention!

Cavitation as source of compression and catastrophic collapse

• If pressure excerted on a liquid falls below the liquid vapour pressure, vapour bubbles form, conversely a rapid increase of pressure brings about a violent collapse of these bubbles.

• These phenomena are known to pit metals and are source of corrosion.

• The pitted surface of metals indicated that the collapse of bubbles induced by a sudden increase of pressure managed to concentrate in small volumes a great amount of energy, i.e. to create particularly high energy density conditions.

WARNING: Piezonuclear reactions are NOT Sonofusion

• experiment: The fuel of these reactions are basically all stable nuclides and in particular those whose binding energy per nucleon is, in absolute value, as close as possible to the maximum.

• Sonofusion• theory: sonofusion is thermonuclear fusion in a tiny

region of space inside the collapsing bubble. Coulomb barrier is to be overcome

• experiment: sonofusion is aimed at producing deuterium-deuterium fusion,

• phenomenology: sonofusion treats the walls of the bubble as a impermeable membrane.The bubble is a piston. Nuclear fuel is contained in the bubble

• Piezonuclear reactions• theory: Piezonuclear reactions have neither to do with

fusion nor with fission. They are based on the concept of Local Lorentz Invariance breakdown space-time deformation. No Coulomb barrier

• phenomenology: the walls of the bubble are treated as a completely permeable membrane through which the content of the bubble can escape during collapse. Nuclear fuel is trapped in the wall of the bubble that behaves like an accelerator of heavy ions that are forcibly pushed against each other

Cavitation as source of compression and catastrophic collapse

• If pressure excerted on a liquid falls below the liquid vapour pressure, vapour bubbles form, conversely a rapid increase of pressure brings about a violent collapse of these bubbles.

• These phenomena are known to pit metals and are source of corrosion.

• The pitted surface of metals indicated that the collapse of bubbles induced by a sudden increase of pressure managed to concentrate in small volumes a great amount of energy, i.e. to create particularly high energy density conditions.

Further evidences from solids - ultrasoundCylindrical Bars: 20 cm high, 2 cm of diameter19 Watt transferred into the bar1 hour of application of ultrasound

Further evidences from solidscontinuous compression

Compression by a servo-controlled press of specimens of granite and marble up brittle fracture

• 367.5 GeV is enormous from a microscopical point of view and still very big from a macroscopical one because of the Avogadro constant

• 100 J/s 6·1020 eV/s 6·1020 / NA 1·10-3 eV/s·atom

• 367.5 GeV easily reachable by adding the mass energy of the nuclides

8 atoms of Iron56 * 8 = 448448 * 0. 938 GeV = 420 GeV > 367,5 GeV.With 7 atoms one gets 367.7 GeV