Expansion of Different Materials and Extracting the Power

[Jim Mac]

From what I understand of Gallium:

• It melts at 85.57 degrees F.
  
• It contracts around 3% when melted
  
• The expansion when solidifying can NOT be stopped
  
• The melting temperature remains the same regardless how much force is preventing it from expanding
  
• Assuming no contamination, it can melt and solidify unlimited times
  

This seems to have all the ingredients for a free energy machine..

If the gallium is placed in a steel pipe with 1 end sealed, and a piston on the other end, the piston would rise when the gallium solidifies and the torque or upward pressure would be virtually unlimited.

The piston could be used to spin a rotor that is geared to achieve proper RPM. And since the torque is only limited by the strength and rigidity of the gears, the RPM can be quite high.

Heating and Colling elements can be placed inside or around the pipe, and possibly the output power can heat and cool the gallium.

The design has many possibilities.  2 tubes could be used like an engine, where when 1 tube heats, the other cools, thus providing 2 stroke for retraction.

I ordered 2 vials to play with..  Let's see!

[Jim Mac]

I was speaking to Chet about the possibilities.  He raised an important point.  The Gallium would probably expand from all sides and not straight up.  I found a Youtube video of Gallium doing exactly this, and breaking glass.



So an idea would be to fill an expandable chamber (like a rubber balloon) with Gallium.  Then submerge the balloon in oil or water.  As the Gallium expands and contracts it will raise and lower the water level.  The water's differential can be used with floatation to spin gears.

Or with proper mechanical abilities, even make hydraulic pressure to do mechanical work.  The mechanical work would need to be able to change the temperature of the gallium a few degrees to keep the cycle going

[Jim Mac]

Here is a video of a guy sealing melted gallium in a 3cm wall steel ball.  The Gallium breaks the steel ball when expanding (solidifying).



According to his calculations, we can expect 12,000 bars per centimeter  of pressure inside the ball.  Which equates to around 1,200 TONS of pressure on the inside of the ball.

The area inside the ball was reported to be 99.6 cm3.

if the pressure inside the sphere is applied over a distance of 1 foot, it equates to approximately 3.6 million joules of energy.

He was able to cool the water to 44.33 degrees F.  So taking these numbers, from 44 Low to 90 degrees High (plenty hot enough to melt gallium)  heating 2 cups of water from 44°F to 90°F then cooling water from 90 to 44 degrees requires approximately 9,600 joules.  

To put this in perspective, we can theoretically see 99.7 TIMES more energy out than in.  (9,870 %)   That is--  IF we can harness it.   Hell, even if we only harness 1% of the power, this it gives us a >COP 3.5

[Jim Mac]

Another perspective to consider.. 3.6 Million joules, which 1 gallium solidifying cycle can theoretically produce in the experiment above, can power a 100 watt lightbulb for 10 hours.


The first step is to make sure we have a way to capture and convert the very small movement.  As stated, the movement will be very small, but the force behind it has the power to heave the Empire State Building.  Efficiency tweaks will be worked out later.  

I am thinking of a syringe system for the first setup.  The plastic syringe may need to be sleeved with a steel pipe to prevent the plastic from expanding.  

   

If Gallium inside a flexible pouch was suspended inside the syringe and the syringe filled with oil, the expanding and contracting Gallium could theoretically create pressure inside the syringe and move the plunger in and out as it melts and solidifies.  The slightly moving plunger could then push a cantilever with a pivot point designed to create much more movement.

A single Peltier Cooler should easily be able to heat and cool the Gallium.  I will worry about the efficiency later as I stated.  For now, I want to see if I can create visible movement while the gallium cycles through phases.

[Jim Mac]

Before wasting gallium on these experiments (as it was not cheap) I am going to experiment with water..  Actually water may even be better overall..

Water expands roughly 9% when frozen.  Gallium expands roughly 3%.  Which means, we could potentially get 3X the movement by freezing water over gallium.

I squirted 30mm of water in a balloon then fit the balloon into a plastic expansion tube so it shouldn't press on the sides of the syringe.  The tube was slid into the syringe..

   

I will next, Fill the syringe with cooking oil and notate the plunger mark. I will seal off the needle hole and place in the freezer a few hours.   According to my math, I should see the plunger move 2.7ML.    This number can be massively increased by using more water.  But this is enough to test.

Since it takes about 20 continuous watts to keep a 1 cubic foot cooler below freezing, there should be more than enough power to produce this from water expansion, considering I could insert multiple tubes in the freezer at once.   

But first to make sure I can harness the expansion!



Quick note,  Syringe filled with used cooking oil to 55ml.  Needle plugged and placed in freezer at 3:48 PM.  

   

I will update as the results come in..

[Jim Mac]

I waited a little shy of 2 hours then pulled it out of the freezer.  I snapped a closeup of the reading..

This is a Closeup of the start BEFORE FREEZING

   

This is AFTER FROZEN

   

It looks slightly over 2ml raise.  As stated, the math suggested roughly 2.7ml of expansion..  So the syringe capture rate seems decent.  It appears the syringe captures roughly 74% of the possible movement.  

Remember there were variables I can not account for, such as the balloon material absorption, moisture in the used cooking oil, etc.

I am now allowing the frozen water to melt and will take another closeup once the water is back to liquid.

If everything looks good, I will proceed to build the Peltier Cooler and Cantilever.  Then I can test how far I can get the cantilever to move and start applying some weight which the syringe can withstand.  

Ultimately, this will have to be built with materials much more durable than a plastic syringe, but hopefully these experiments will tell us if the venture is worth-while

[Jim Mac]

The water balloon is now fully melted. And the syringe pulled back to the starting point at 55ml

   

Taking 2mm throw,  if I make a cantilever arm 8" and place the pivot point centered at 2" from an end, I multiply the throw by 3 times giving me 6mm of throw.  Then repeat with a 2nd cantilever, that 3mm becomes 18mm of throw.   But I will get to figuring all that out later..

For now-  time to try to build a Peltier Cooling device with mounting holes for the cantilever which I can add on after it works.

Edit-  I want to quote this from an AI

there is no material that can completely resist the expansion force of freezing water if the water is contained within it. Ice will expand as it freezes, and if the container is strong enough to resist the expansion, the pressure inside will continue to build until the container fails or deforms. So, no known material can completely restrain the expansion of ice without eventually breaking or deforming.

Knowing this, the Potential Torque is literally UNLIMITED, only governed by the strength of the materials.  While the temperature to cause the effect remains the same

[Jim Mac]

I just realized another important reason why the syringe reading did not move the full 2.7ml in my test above.  The water balloon was surrounded by an oil jacket!  Oil contracts when chilled roughly 1.6% it's volume.  So the Water balloon expanded 9% while the oil Contracted, thus taking away from the overall movement.

[Jim Mac]

So I changed the title of this post because the idea is fluent and moving in different directions, although related..

While exploring expanding and contraction from the environment, these greenhouse window openers came into mind..  They operate with no input power at all.  The daily fluctuations in temperature make them extend and retract.

   

As I understand, they are filled with some special wax that expands and contracts with temperature change.  And the expansion of the wax can not be stopped.  Comparable to water changing phases.  The possible pressure is governed by the materials of the vessel constraining it.

This thing should be much easier to get moving with Peltier heaters / coolers than freezing water to ice..  + it's already designed and built to make linear motion better than I can do.

I happen to have 1 on hand I am going to play with...

[Jim Mac]

So for indoor experiments, I am thinking this:

Build a mount for the greenhouse arm that moves a rack gear with a linear bearing on a rod.  Obviously the rack gear rotates the pinion gear.  Now I should get rotation which can be geared later.  

Then for indoor testing, wrap the cylinder in electrically insulating tape and wind Nichrome wire around it.  

Once I get rotation, I can begin gearing the pinion gear as heavily as the materials will allow.  See what we get..