Pulsed Electrolysis at the Google Science Fair

As promised by the organizers of the Google Science Fair, the regional winners were announced on May 21.



The planet is divided into three regions:

- North and South America;

- Europe, Middle East and Africa;

- Asian-Pacific area.

Each region has three age groups:

- 13-14 years old;

- 15-16 years;

- 17-18 years old.

In each group, 10 projects were selected, totaling 90 scientific papers.



In a few weeks, the organizers will select 15 finalists who will go to the final draw in the USA, where the winners will be determined.

The final results and projects of the winners can be viewed on the website:

www.google.com/intl/en/events/sciencefair/index.html English version.

www.google.com/intl/ru/events/sciencefair/index.html Russian version.

The number of all participants is unknown to me, and I compiled the final table of the countries of the winners from the results page of the Google Science Fair contest.

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The top five countries: USA, India, Singapore, Spain and Germany.

It is interesting that you can easily see the project written in a foreign language, thanks to the built-in translator. The basic idea of ​​the project is quite possible to understand.

On the positive side, it can be noted that any child can easily take part in the competition. All you need is an interesting idea and a beautiful way of presenting it.

There are various restrictions that must be read carefully in the conditions of the competition. In memory: not all countries can participate, the use of music is prohibited, there should be no advertising, and a number of others.



And now about the sad ...

Russia in the table is missing. From the former USSR only Ukraine is represented with a project to study the effect of car exhaust on the ecology of a large city - we wish them success!

On youtube saw several works from Russia. The disadvantage of the competition is that there is no list of all participants at the qualifying stage (or I could not find it).

Why am I writing this? I watched the competition from the participant’s side, as I was involved as a camera operator and device manufacturer for my daughter, who took part in the competition and was able to burn water while exploring pulsed water electrolysis. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the finalists.

Watched her work, research, experiences. Work had to be done besides studies, therefore the performance as a result decreased slightly ...



The story of water burning, research, observation, measurements and conclusions are on the website with a description of the project. I will not retell, anyone can read the link at the bottom of the article. Questions passed to the author of the work.

I don’t know how from the point of view of science, but for me the results of my daughter’s experiments seemed interesting and therefore I’ll share my part of the work with a description of the Pulse Electrolyzer device.

The device can be used at school to safely study the electro-hydraulic effect, which was discovered by our compatriot Lev Yutkin. It is also called "Russian Tesla".

And it's all about him:

- books;

- biography;

- the film.



Yutkin is cool: lightning, tens of kilovolts and millions of rubles of savings.

Everything is easier here:

small hand plasma





fire from the water





Galaxy





So.

On the instructions of the younger generation, it was necessary to urgently make an analogue of the welding apparatus, on which the appearance of fire was first noticed when the electrode touched water.

First of all, there was a security problem, so it was decided to make it battery-powered. You can use a transformer and household electrical network, but practice has confirmed the advantages of battery life.

As a voltage converter, parts were used from my first flashlight Electronics FE-26 “Danko”. Replaced only the high-voltage diode and set the output voltage limit, so as not to pinch strongly.

The pulse generator could be done on the 555th timer, but a significant current consumption, a large number of strapping and a lack of time in search turned the microcontroller. A simple program makes it easy to achieve the necessary parameters of pulses.

Field effect transistor used from the bins. For high-quality control of the key transistor, a driver chip is installed.

As it turned out later, it was the high speed of the key that contributed to the electrohydraulic effect in the experience. In the future, it is necessary to further work on the dynamics of the key.

Much time was spent on inventing a method of fixing the central electrode. The thin tubule made of copper foil helped. The electrode is inserted into it and fixed with a toothpick. Another electrode for protection against electric shock and short circuit is covered with a plastic tube with holes.

The upper part of the body is a pshikalka for cleaning the monitor.

Bottom - a jar for vitamins with a symbolic inscription on the bottom of "Prometheus".

The switch is mounted in the bottom of the case. The battery is a three-volt 123A battery.





Then the daughter’s job is to get fire from the water, measure, investigate, draw conclusions. Science, in general.

As far as I understood correctly from the experiments, this method of producing fire has a great potential - to reduce the diameter of the electrode and increase the voltage in the pulse. For safety reasons, the limit at which the destruction of the electrode begins is not investigated, and the increase in hydrogen production is clearly visible.



The printed circuit board was not made, the mounting was carried out and the parts were sealed with sealant. Everything can be seen at the beginning of the first movie.

If you watch a movie on YouTube, then in the detailed description there is a timeline that allows you to quickly and accurately get to any stage of the experience.



My.

Electric circuit in pdf format.

The program of the pulse shaper in the language of PBP.



Daughter.

Site with job description.



Film 1 "Pulsed electrolysis of the surface layer of water."





Film 2 "Electrohydraulic effect in sea water".





Get ready for next year!

Good luck to everyone, and let the strongest win!



Addition to the article.

During the discussion, many questions arose. I will put the answers in the article, so as not to look in the comments.



The purpose of writing the story:

- to pay attention to an interesting scientific competition and the simplicity of participation in it in your native language;

- to push people to participate in the next contest, as I understood it, annual;

- to emphasize that despite the huge size of the country, an excellent scientific history, not a single project from Russia was in the final;

- to show (by example) that the work is still there, just surely the most worthy ones get to the final;

- recall our great scientist Lev Yutkin;

- share the history of the creation of a pulsed electrolyzer and tell a little about the work so that the works are not lost on the Internet. It is possible that this will push someone to research in this direction or contributes to inventing something new.



It turned out that the work attracted much attention. We did not expect such an effect from the article and good reviews. Thank you so much for your support! It was a pleasure.



To participate in the competition, it was necessary to come up with an interesting question and get a positive or negative answer to it during the course of the experiment.

Question - Is it possible to set fire to the sea?

The answer is yes!

The experience was simple and spectacular. About this shot the first movie. This could be limited, but ...

As a result of the experience, many interesting observations emerged.

A very unexpected was the manifestation of the electro-hydraulic effect. A lot of extra time was spent on his research and a second film was born. Everything was so interesting and fascinating that it affected learning. But science, like art requires sacrifice, will catch up.

It was interesting to photograph the flash. Usually in such films we see only the video. Photos allow you to explore everything very carefully. But to make good shots with such a small frequency of work and a short pulse time is very difficult on short exposures. The hit percentage is extremely low.



In this paper, a general principle was given, the initial stage of the manifestation of the electrohydraulic effect and the production of hydrogen in pulsed surface electrolysis.

In the future, it is necessary to carry out a large amount of work for research and expansion of the field of application. It is natural, unbearable for the student.



Miscellanea.

1. No one noticed that a thin cathode is used, and the thinner it is, the higher the efficiency of hydrogen evolution. Nowhere has a thin cathode been used in electrolysis. Moreover, during the experiment the electrode did not change in length. Very thin electrodes have not been investigated. The smallest diameter was only 0.08 mm, I wanted a smaller one. There is a dependency that the effect will work at a lower voltage. Important current density. Electrolysis, this is a very delicate matter!

2. Unlike classical electrolysis, electrolysis occurs on the surface of the liquid in the experiment, which allows to increase the efficiency of the process.

3. An explanation of the cause of the electrohydraulic effect is given (for Yutkin this explanation is somewhat different). During electrolysis, hydrogen is released at an enormous rate. Its further explosion (burning at high speed) is the source of high pressure.

In the case of surface electrolysis, we observe hydrogen in the form of fire — the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the study. With the explosion of the released hydrogen in the water column, the pressure increases as a result of the expansion of the exploding cavity.

The key factor is the rate of change of voltage at the electrode. The front is smaller, the effect is better. If the electrode worked from a household network with a frequency of 50 Hz, as most people do, then nothing would have happened.

It was noticed by chance, with pampering with a welding machine. Then, thanks to the experiments, the flame came out of this spark.

Yutkin talked about the generality of water and atmospheric phenomena. Therefore, it can be said that the lightning and thunder that we observe in nature are the same explosion that occurs in experiments. Only in experience is a greatly reduced model operating at low voltage. When lightning occurs, an explosion of hydrogen released from electrolysis of water molecules in the air occurs.

4. Energy characteristics. No one said that the work violated the law of conservation of energy. The effectiveness of the pulsed electrolysis of the surface layer of water according to the calculations of the daughter, Ramil - that is her name, was 1.05Watts / liter. Here you can discuss, but it was counted.

5 The use of the effect is varied. This is an energetic and exotic use.

An example with a gear wheel shows the occurrence of reactive power.

If we lay several capsules with water on a spacecraft, then with its explosion we get a reactive force. It turned out a small corrective engine. Ramil worked with a droplet, the effect is maintained on such fluid sizes.

You can use the resulting reactive force to actuate sea-going ships. I personally do not like it because of the noise and the impact on the fish. With a large level, it will begin to deaf.

It is possible to make a musical instrument based on this effect by enclosing several electrodes at different heights of the capacitance, or by making several capacities for the number of notes used — a kind of Jutkinvox.

It is possible to try a device for cleaning the underwater part of ships from contamination.

The device will work fine as a short pulse source in the sonar.

6. Using the device for the study of cavitation. Bubbles there stand out better than boiling.

7. It is quite possible to use the fact of the formation of a large number of bubbles to reduce friction when a seagoing vessel (submarine) moves in the water. If you equip the outer surface of the vessel with a large number of electrodes-emitters, then when they work, there are bubbles and friction is significantly reduced, which will reduce the energy costs of moving. In this case, the unit power of each radiator will be quite low.

8. Very interesting for the study of the combustion zone. The hydrogen in the center of the core is heated to one temperature, in the yellow zone to the other. Perhaps he is there in different states. Surprisingly very sharp zone boundaries, with virtually no transitions.



The idea of ​​reducing the friction of the hull of ships is easy to check in experience.

On the front part of the rotating in the blade blades it is necessary to install one isolated electrode (similar to that used in the second film). The wire can be led along (along) the axis of rotation.

The second electrode is placed in the water.

Then measure the current consumed by the motor, causing the blade to rotate:

A. When the electrolyzer is turned off.

B. When the electrolyzer is on, which creates a cloud of bubbles in front of the blade.

If in case B, the current consumed (in total with the current consumed by the pulsed electrolyzer) is less than the current in case A, then the effect of reducing friction takes place.



Interesting is a pulsed electrolyzer. There is work to do:

- make adjustment of the output voltage, pulse time and pause. There was no time in the work, it was necessary to change the parameters by programming;

- make an indication of the output parameters;

- to increase the voltage at the output of the device, having experienced it when working at high voltages. Something tells me that it will be very interesting;

- achieve steeper impulses using modern keys and driver.

The advantage of the design is that the capacitor-drive, which is ultimately a source of energy, is in close proximity to the electrodes, which reduces losses.

Interesting is the use of the device for the study of electro-hydraulic effect. The device is simple, cheap and safe. It is quite applicable for schools.



In conclusion, the work was offered a small list of areas (16, if memory serves), in which it is necessary to continue research. An interesting result can be obtained in any of them.

The work is very interesting and promising.

The photo "Galaxy" was called the "Flash of a Supernova". It seems to me, it seems to me, that all these phenomena are united by the work of hydrogen and speaks of the generality of the phenomena.



PS Here is the confirmation of these words. The article is a photograph of the galaxy SDSSJ1506 + 54







PPS Further development of the pulsed electrolyzer in the article " Water is burning! As well as EGE and killer waves ."



PPPS

BubaVV , investigating the sparks being carved, created a spectrometer for determining the sodium content in water " As we wrote a scientific paper with a schoolchild ."