OS:Beer glass thruster

From PESWiki

Project goal

This project will seek to develop, test, and deploy, an improved ionic thrust cell. It was conceived on 4/11/08. The cell will be tested on an RC model plane, and aims to be at least 40x more efficient than basic 40Kv triangular so called lifters cells. The main challenge will be development of the power supply, a 150Kv MOSFET driven board, with variable pulse capability, up to 10Khz, with 1% or less duty increments.

Underlying theory

The basis for the design will be the research found in Article:Development of Ionic Electrical Thrust Technology. It will seek to apply two additional levels of theory to development of ionic thrust, validated by major American defence contractors in the 1960s.

• 1) Fluid dynamics in cell design / layout / intake
• 2) Voltages above the air breakdown value of about 30-40Kv - target 150Kv.

Conventional lifters research asserts it is impossible to raise voltages much above the air breakdown value of 30-40Kv. In fact rather than being impossible, methods to achieve this were validated and patented in the 1960s.

The methodology is based upon the fact that breakdown does not occur instantly - there is a time delay. The larger the cell, the longer it takes for a conducting path to be established across the cell. If the power is on for a time period LESS than it takes for a conducting path to be established, the cell will not arc over.

• Clearly the larger the cell, the longer the duty / and / or the higher the voltage.
• The higher the frequency, the longer the permissible duty, as the absolute time period of a constant duty shortens with increasing frequency.

On March 9, 1992, "Aviation Week and Space Technology" disclosed that the B-2 stealth bomber, electrostatically charges its exhaust stream and the leading edges to millions of volts, yet there is no arc over visible when the B2 is seen in flight. This is possible because of the massive size of the ionic cell (the length of the craft, effectively) and a low duty, high frequency, short rise time pulse generator (classified). Most likely the greatest challenge of the B2 project was development of the power supply.

This public disclosure, besides the 1960s patents, and a theoretical examination of the underlying physics of ionic cells, amounts to a substantial cumulative case of evidence, that the 40Kv ionic cell voltage barrier, can in fact be broken, in much the same way as the sound barrier, and other so called limits of technology, have also been overcome.

Beer glass thruster

In terms of finding an appropriate household object to base cell design upon, allowing easy low cost home experimentation, beer glasses seem optimal, for several reasons.

• 1) They have the optimal conical shape for the receiver end of the ion flow
• 2) Beer glasses already integrate a softened lip at the larger end
• 3) Non conductive and easy to line with foil
• 4) Its easy to cut the bottom out of plastic beer glasses
• 5) Initial experimentation could be done with plastic beer glasses, actual working models for flight, should use genuine beer glasses, for improved strength and durability.
• 6) 500ml / 1 pint beer glasses are suggested as a minimum size, as theory indicates larger is better for ionic cells

OS:Beer glass thruster cell design

Power supply

Various required characteristics:

• 1) 150Kv output
• 2) Up to 10 KHz pulse frequencies
• 3) MOSFET driven
• 4) Low variable duty, in 1% increments, or less.
• 5) High efficiency, low power, light weight

OS:Beer glass thruster power supply

Performance expectations

• 1) The conical shape should provide a 4-6 times thrust advantage over standard triangular ionic cells (Tecson's Vortex lifter achieved an estimated 4x).
• 2) The 150Kv pulse setup, should provide a 10-25 fold increase in thrust (as per the 1960s patent claims), once appropriate frequencies and duties have been validated, optimized for the beer glass scale i.e. the apparatus has been tuned in.

Overall, the Beer Glass Thruster should be 40-100 times more powerful than basic 40Kv triangular so called Lifter cells, and should function as a viable commercial prototype, as the equivalent devices did in the 1960s, just before they were rolled into the stealth project.

Deployment

Once validated, cells to be placed one on the top of each wing, of an appropriate remote control model aircraft, as an alternative thrust source.

OS:Beer glass thruster operational

Personnel

• Tim Harwood has proposed, and now outlined this project in detail, in addition to providing the base article / research. From past experience, Tim sees little point in simply lecturing a silent audience. The goal of open source projects is to encourage participation. If no-one is interested in re-creating best practise variants of 1960s ionic art, updated using modern electronics, then so be it. But this project at least provides the opportunity, and framework with which to do so, for anyone who is interested. Since all the concepts in this project are taken from lapsed patents from American defence contractors filed in the 1960s, there are no restrictions on usage of the technology.
•  ??????? - open position
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Disclaimer

As always, all experimentation done at own risk. Ionic thrust involves high voltages.

Resources

• Tecson Vortex lifter - Estimated to be four times more efficient than classic triangular lifter cells.
• Article:Development of Ionic Electrical Thrust Technology