Mayonnaise Could Help Improve Fusion Energy Yields (arstechnica.com) 39
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Inertial confinement fusion is one method for generating energy through nuclear fusion, albeit one plagued by all manner of scientific challenges (although progress is being made). Researchers at LeHigh University are attempting to overcome one specific bugbear with this approach by conducting experiments with mayonnaise placed in a rotating figure-eight contraption. They described their most recent findings in a new paper published in the journal Physical Review E with an eye toward increasing energy yields from fusion.
The work builds on prior research in the LeHigh laboratory of mechanical engineer Arindam Banerjee, who focuses on investigating the dynamics of fluids and other materials in response to extremely high acceleration and centrifugal force. In this case, his team was exploring what's known as the "instability threshold" of elastic/plastic materials. Scientists have debated whether this comes about because of initial conditions, or whether it's the result of "more local catastrophic processes," according to Banerjee. The question is relevant to a variety of fields, including geophysics, astrophysics, explosive welding, and yes, inertial confinement fusion. [...]
The problem is that hydrodynamic instabilities tend to form in the plasma state -- Banerjee likens it to "two materials [that] penetrate one another like fingers" in the presence of gravity or any accelerating field -- which in turn reduces energy yields. The technical term is a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which occurs between two materials of different densities, where the density and pressure gradients move in opposite directions. Mayonnaise turns out to be an excellent analog for investigating this instability in accelerated solids, with no need for a lab setup with high temperature and pressure conditions, because it's a non-Newtonian fluid. "We use mayonnaise because it behaves like a solid, but when subjected to a pressure gradient, it starts to flow," said Banerjee. "As with a traditional molten metal, if you put a stress on mayonnaise, it will start to deform, but if you remove the stress, it goes back to its original shape. So there's an elastic phase followed by a stable plastic phase. The next phase is when it starts flowing, and that's where the instability kicks in." In 2019, Banerjee's team conducted experiments that "involved pouring Hellman's Real Mayonnaise [...] into a Plexiglass container and then creating wavelike perturbations in the mayo," writes Ars' Jennifer Ouellette. "One experiment involved placing the container on a rotating wheel in the shape of a figure eight and tracking the material with a high-speed camera, using an image processing algorithm to analyze the footage. Their results supported the claim that the instability threshold is dependent on initial conditions, namely amplitude and wavelength."
"This latest paper sheds more light on the structural integrity of fusion capsules used in inertial confinement fusion, taking a closer look at the material properties, the amplitude and wavelength conditions, and the acceleration rate of such materials as they hit the Rayleigh-Taylor instability threshold."
The work builds on prior research in the LeHigh laboratory of mechanical engineer Arindam Banerjee, who focuses on investigating the dynamics of fluids and other materials in response to extremely high acceleration and centrifugal force. In this case, his team was exploring what's known as the "instability threshold" of elastic/plastic materials. Scientists have debated whether this comes about because of initial conditions, or whether it's the result of "more local catastrophic processes," according to Banerjee. The question is relevant to a variety of fields, including geophysics, astrophysics, explosive welding, and yes, inertial confinement fusion. [...]
The problem is that hydrodynamic instabilities tend to form in the plasma state -- Banerjee likens it to "two materials [that] penetrate one another like fingers" in the presence of gravity or any accelerating field -- which in turn reduces energy yields. The technical term is a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which occurs between two materials of different densities, where the density and pressure gradients move in opposite directions. Mayonnaise turns out to be an excellent analog for investigating this instability in accelerated solids, with no need for a lab setup with high temperature and pressure conditions, because it's a non-Newtonian fluid. "We use mayonnaise because it behaves like a solid, but when subjected to a pressure gradient, it starts to flow," said Banerjee. "As with a traditional molten metal, if you put a stress on mayonnaise, it will start to deform, but if you remove the stress, it goes back to its original shape. So there's an elastic phase followed by a stable plastic phase. The next phase is when it starts flowing, and that's where the instability kicks in." In 2019, Banerjee's team conducted experiments that "involved pouring Hellman's Real Mayonnaise [...] into a Plexiglass container and then creating wavelike perturbations in the mayo," writes Ars' Jennifer Ouellette. "One experiment involved placing the container on a rotating wheel in the shape of a figure eight and tracking the material with a high-speed camera, using an image processing algorithm to analyze the footage. Their results supported the claim that the instability threshold is dependent on initial conditions, namely amplitude and wavelength."
"This latest paper sheds more light on the structural integrity of fusion capsules used in inertial confinement fusion, taking a closer look at the material properties, the amplitude and wavelength conditions, and the acceleration rate of such materials as they hit the Rayleigh-Taylor instability threshold."
Re:Mayonnaise is bad for you. (Score:5, Interesting)
Mayonnaise is made with soybean oil and eggs.
It has little saturated fat and is not particularly bad for you.
More importantly, it has a viscosity and density that make it useful for scaled fluid modeling. As long as you keep the same Reynold's Number [wikipedia.org], you can trade off one factor, such as linear dimensions, for other factors, such as viscosity.
This is why you can model airflow over a wing using water instead of air on a tiny scale to predict the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. Scaling isn't perfect, and you eventually need to build a full-scale model, but CFD and scaled modeling can weed out a lot of bad ideas.
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Mayonnaise is made with soybean oil
Traditionally, it's olive oil. I may check to see what I have in my cupboard, but I'm in the UK so it's probably salad cream.
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Mayonnaise is made with soybean oil and eggs.
It can be made with most (probably all) types of vegetable oil. The kind I get is made with avocado oil; it's delicious.
Re:Mayonnaise is bad for you. (Score:4, Interesting)
You should make your own!
Basically:
1) put eggs in
2) start and keep whipping until the end
3) slowly add oil while still whipping until it starts to emulsify
4) keep incorporating oil and vinegar salt and pepper herbs, etc. while still whipping
It tastes immensely better with fresh eggs.
Warning: it only last for a few days which makes you wonder what you eat when the jar can stay two months in the fridge with commercial products. /s
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Warning: it only last for a few days
That's what the other dozen ingredients listed on the jar are for - and you really should be asking yourself, if the commercial stuff lasts so long on the shelf because nothing in the environment wants to grow in it, how good can it be for all your own good internal bacteria?
Definitely better to make your own.
Salad dressing is another thing you can make in about 2 min with something acidic for (balsamic, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) , olive oil, salt and pepper plus whatever herbs and garlic you want
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Guess you shouldn't eat honey either then, as nothing will grow in it. It can even be stored at room temperature for thousands of years without going bad!
Honey is only stable due to it's concentration. Bees make honey by evaporating the water from the nectar they collect. Dilute it and bacteria love to eat it. A little water and yeast and you have mead...
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The difference is, honey is a natural product our body knows how to handle due to its natural origins, and a little bit is not too bad for you. eating a lot of it though is also unhealthy, not much difference from eating lots of sugar, but still probably better than eating artificial sweeteners that our bodies definitely have not evolved to deal with.
Ironically, all the artificial sweeteners that are used to make products that are supposed to help you lose weight may well be doing the opposite. Numerous st
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You should make your own! Basically: ...
Thanks. This was also explained on an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown way back.
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Overheard in a car that drove by:
- Do you know what they use for fusion research in LeHigh instead of plasma, man?
- What?
- Mayonnaise.
- God damn!
- I seen them do it, man, they fucking drown it in that shit.
- That's some fucked up shit.
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No Patrick, mayonnaise is not an instrument.
Needs one more ingredient! (Score:2)
I'll have some mustard with this!
I guess trying this is ... (Score:3, Funny)
Mayonnaise Could Help Improve Fusion Energy Yields
Lehigh not LeHigh (Score:1)
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Thank you. Came here to question this as well (albeit seven hours later).
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There you go! One of the many fine universities in and around Philadelphia.
This is fucking awesome (Score:2)
Now do Bacon.
And it's not even April 1st (Score:2)
I'm not believing SHIT... (Score:3)
Until they replicate it with Duke's.
Material Research Group (Score:3)
Many, many moons ago, I had a job working with a material research group. They were using Gaussian software to model something, something chemistry (not exactly my field). Where I came in was building a cluster of systems that was using the Linda software package from Gaussian to run on multiple machines. The output would then be rendered on their fancy SGI Indigo boxes.
Very long story short. I had come into the lab one evening to change over tapes and grab the ones for offsite. One of the researchers was still there in the lab and I decided to chat them up a bit as I headed out. To my surprise they were blowing foam and using Great Value Grape Juice for some part of it. I have no idea what role it played but the researcher had tried all kinds of other juices and found that GV Grape Juice was best for whatever it was that it was good for.
I left with a box of tape and two containers of half used Welch's Juice.
Some of them do use all kinds of random stuff for their experiments.
Also the head researcher had a SGI Octane machine and a Power Mac G3. I think his Octane machine made me insanely jealous of how nice IRIX looked at the time.
We would have published results before... (Score:2)
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You may not think it's as bad as shit hitting the fan, but you haven't had to conduct experiments in a lab that reeks of three day old mayonnaise.
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Unrelated Mayonnaise Anecdote (Score:5, Interesting)
So yeah, I believe mayonnaise behaves weirdly under acceleration.
They should consult with the Mayo Clinic (Score:3)
Get the name right! (Score:1)
Lehigh not LeHigh (Score:2)
Both the post and the Ars article have it incorrectly capitalized.
Bingham Plastics are Gross! (Score:2)
I always knew... (Score:1)
Mayonnaise (Score:2)
helps my sandwich, why not nuclear fusion? Or superconductors for that matter!
Secret ingredient (Score:1)