Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Phase Equilibria Tutorial

I created a tutorial which describes phase behavior of a system consisting of three substances: hydrogen, helium, and boron. The main objective of this tutorial is to aid in discovery of how much, if any, boron condenses out of the gaseous phase. The same methods used in this tutorial may also be used to explore the vaporization of boron. Please note that more work may need to be done on Appendix A, and possibly other parts. I value comments and suggestions.

The link is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0961cf99bccaeeb0ab1eab3e9fa335ca4d776e759cad9414

Hopefully this will be helpful to the open source Polywell.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Book list

Here are a number of books that I own, and their supposed relation to the Polywell concept. Some of the relations are a stretch.

Tadmor, Z., Gogos, C. Principles of Polymer Processing, 2nd Ed. Wiley, NY. 2006

Relevance: Extruders are discussed in this tome, so this knowledge may be useful for transporting Boron.


Fogler, Scott. Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering. 4th Ed. Pearson Education, 2006

Relevance: There is an interesting parallel between Chemical Kinetics and Nuclear Reaction Kinetics

Abrahamowitz, M. Stegun, I. Handbook of Mathematical Functions. Dover Publications 1965

Relevance: This book is from another era, but it has solutions to a variety of differential equations.

Israelvachvili, J. Intermolecular and Surface Forces. 2nd Ed. Academic Press. 1992

Relevance: This book discusses coulombic forces, but a lot of other stuff too.

Zubrick, James. The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual. 6th Ed. Wiley, New York. 2004

Relevance: Basic laboratory skills are a must when generating any sort of feedstock

Wooton. Beckenback, Fleming. Modern Analytic Geometry. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1972

Relevance: This is a good place to start to think spatially. Questions related to magnetic field distributions may begin to be answered. Vectors included.

Krall, N., Trivelpiece, A. Principles of Plasma Physics. San Francisco Press. San Francisco, 1986

Relevance: This is an excellent reference for the study of Plasma Physics. It is a little advanced however, so a mathematical methods course may be required.

Chen, Francis. Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol: 1, 2nd ed. Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1984

Relevance: This is a commonly used textbook in the plasma physics schools

Bittencourt, J.A., Fundamentals of Plasma Physics, 3rd ed., Springer, New York, 2004


Relevance: This a good place to start learning plasma physics. It is not nearly as scary as the text by Krall.


Ida, Nathan. Engineering Electromagnetics, 2nd Ed., Springer, New York, 2004

Relevance: This is prerequisite for learning plasma physics. Many of the Maxwell Equations are discussed here. However, for a complete study, one may also want to consult electrodynamics. See the on-line book, Electromagnetic Field Theory by Bo Thide. (http://www.plasma.uu.se/CED/Book)

Callister, W. Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction, 6th Ed. Wiley, New York, NY., 2003

Relevance: Every system atrophies.

Welty et. al, Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer, 4th Ed. Wiley, New York, NY, 2001

Relevance: This is an elementary and practical understanding of transport phenomena.

Seader, J., Henley, E. Separation Process Principles, Wiley, New York, NY, 1998

Relevance: Have you ever wanted to have a chemistry lab on a large scale? This may be useful for purifying boron?

Riedel, S., Nilsson, J. Electric Circuits, 6th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999


Relevance: This is obvious. We will be dealing with electricity.


Tipler, P. Physics: For Scientists and Engineers (Vol 3: Modern Physics: Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and The Structure of Matter), 4th Ed. W. H. Freeman., New York, NY, 1990

Relevance: Strange things occur at small scales.

Tipler, P. Physics: For Scientists and Engineers (Vol 2: Electricity and Magnatism), 4th Ed. W. H. Freeman., New York, NY, 1990

Relevance: This is a good step towards understanding the behaviour in the reactor.

Tipler, P. Physics: For Scientists and Engineers (Vol 1: Mechanics, Oscillations and Waves, Thermodynamics), 4th Ed. W. H. Freeman., New York, NY, 1990
Silberberg, M. Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change. 3rd Ed. Mc-Graw Hill., New York, NY, 2003

Relevance: A good source for looking up odd things that are forgotten.

Hornback, J. Organic Chemistry. Thomson Learning. Belmont, CA. 1998

Relevance: Boron Chemistry is similar to Carbon Chemistry.

Davis, Stephen R. C++ for Dummies. 3rd Ed. IDG Books, Foster City, CA 1998

Relevance: Virtual Polywell, Process Controls

Jones, B. Aitken, P. Sams Teach Yourself C in 21 Days, 6th Ed. Sams Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2003

Relevance: Virtual Polywell, Process Controls

Tester, J. Modell, M. Thermodynamics and Its Applications, 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1997

Relevance: Boron, Hydrogen, and Helium Phase Equilibria, Electrochemistry – D2O splitting

Prausnitz, J., Lichtenthaler, R., Azevedo, E. Molecular Thermodynamics and Fluid Phase Equilibria, 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999

Relevance: Boron, Hydrogen, and Helium Phase Equilibria

Sandler, S. Chemical, Biochemical, and Engineering Thermodynamics, 4th Ed., Wiley, New York, NY, 2006

Relevance: Boron, Hydrogen, and Helium Phase Equilibria


Cengel, Y. Boles, M. Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach, 4th Ed. Mc-Graw Hill, New York, NY, 2002

Relevance: Prometheus

Potter, M. Somerton, C. Thermodynamics for Engineers (Schaum’s Outlines), Mc-Graw Hill, New York, NY, 1993

Relevance: Prometheus

Winnick, J. Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, Wiley, New York, NY, 1997

Relevance: Boron, Hydrogen, and Helium Phase Equilibria

Laidler, K., Meiser, J., Sanctuary, B. Physical Chemistry, 4th Ed., Hougton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 2003

Relevance: Boron, Hydrogen, and Helium Phase Equilibria

Chapra, S., Canale, R. Numerical Methods for Engineers, 4th Ed. Mc-Graw Hill, New York, NY, 2002

Relevance: Virtual Polywell

Gerald, Wheatley. Applied Numerical Analysis, 7th Ed. Pearson Education, New York, NY, 2004

Relevance: Virtual Polywell

Bird, R., Stewart, W., Lightfoot, E. Transport Phenomena, 2nd Ed, Wiley, New York, NY, 2002

Relevance: This is a slightly more advanced treatment of heat, momentum, and mass transfer.

Seborg, D., Edgar, T., Mellichamp, D. Process Dynamics and Control, 2nd Ed, Wiley, New York, NY, 2004

Relevance: for keeping the Polywell reactor running smoothly.

Moore, J., Weatherford, L. Decision Modeling: With Microsoft Excel, 6th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2001

Relevance: what it the best way to get organized when we go big?

Peters, M., Timmerhaus, K., West, R. Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers, 5th Ed. Mc-Graw Hill., New York, NY, 2003


Relevance: how much does it cost to pursue this project?


Perry, R., Green, D. Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook, 7th Ed. Mc-Graw Hill, New York, NY, 1997


Relevance: the Polywell reactor setup would be very much like a chemical plant.


Axelrod, R., Cooper, C. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, 6th Ed. Bedford/St. Martins, Boston, MA, 2001

Relevance: do you want people to believe you?

Markel, M. Technical Communication, 7th Ed., Bedford/St. Martins, Boston, MA, 2004

Relevance: do you want people to believe you?

Alred, G., Brushaw, C., Oliu, W. Handbook of Technical Writing, 7th Ed. Bedford/St. Martins, Boston, MA, 2003

Relevance: do you want people to believe you?

Mankiw, N. Principles of Macroeconomics, 3rd Ed. Thompson-South-Western, Mason, OH, 2003

Relevance: how is the market behaving? How does my project float around it? Peters and Timmerhaus could help compliment this book.

Stewart, J. Calculus, 4th Ed. Brooks/Cole, Pacific Grove, CA, 1999

Relevance: So I wanted to do vector Calculus but…

Edwards, C., Penney, D. Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling, 3rd Ed., Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004

Relevance: Them Equations look funny, are there any analytical solutions?

Thompson, S. Gardner, M. Calculus Made Easy, St. Martins Press, New York, NY 1998

Relevance: So I wanted to do vector Calculus but…

Saxon, J. Geometry, Trigonometry, Algebra III: An Incremental Development, Saxon Publishers, Norman, OK, 1985

Relevance: This is useful to have in the toolbox, as are all books on this subject

Jaeger, L. Cartesian Tensors in Engineering Science, Pergamon Press, London, England, 1966

Relevance: to help with the transport book, and electromagnetics book

Hibbeler, R, Engineering Mechanics: Statics, 10th Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ,

Relevance: to protect people from dynamics.

Oxlade, C., Stockley, C., Wertheim, J. The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Physics: The facts you need to know at a glance, Usborne Publishing, London, England, 1986

Relevance: this is handy as a physics reference

Chandler, D. Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics, Oxford University Press, New York, NY 1987

Relevance: helpful with plasma physics, but mainly the equilibrium case

Huang, K. Statistical Mechanics, Wiley, New York, NY, 1965

Relevance: helpful with plasma physics

Parker, S. Eyewitness Science: Electricity, Dorling Kindersley, New York, NY, 1992

Relevance: a layman’s introduction to electricity. This is a kids’ book.

Rockwell, T. Reactor Shielding Design Manual, Von Nostrand, Princeton, NJ, 1956

Relevance: be safe

Epstein, L., Relativity Visualized, Insight Press, San Francisco, CA, 1997


Relevance: A great introduction to relativity


Hawking, S. A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1996

Relevance: A curious science book.

Farlow, Stanley J., Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers, Mineola, NY, 1973

Relevance: A differential equation book that is arguably easier to understand than Edward’s and Penny, but it is lacking in computer applications

Frenkel, D., Smit, B., Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications, 2nd Ed., Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2002

Relevance: It is curious that modeling molecular interactions or plasma interactions is a similar feat

Shilov, Georgi E., Elementary Real and Complex Analysis, Dover, Mineola, NY, 1973

Relevance: So the Calculus

Shilov, Georgi E., Linear Algebra, Dover, Mineola, NY, 1977

Relevance: for Plasma Physics

Strogatz, Steven H., Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, and Engineering, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 1994

Relevance: Questionable

Roman, Steven., Advanced Linear Algebra, 3rd Ed. Springer, NY, 2008


Relevance: for Plasma Physics


Roman, Steven.,Writing Excel Macros with VBA, 2nd Ed., O’Reilly, 2002

Relevance: for making Excel do things it would not normally do

Tenenbaum, M., Pollard, H., Ordinary Differential Equations, Dover, Mineola, NY, 1963

Relevance: Everything changes, hopefully on due to one factor

Kubo, R., Toda, M., Hashitsume, N., Statistical Physics II: Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, 2nd Ed., Springer, Berlin, 1998

Relevance: so the plasma we are dealing with is not at equilibrium. Moui comprende?