Researchers at Lehigh University are experimenting with mayonnaise to unlock the secrets of nuclear fusion, a potential source of limitless, clean energy.
This research builds on their previous work, published in 2019, which also utilized mayonnaise to understand the physics behind fusion.
“We use mayonnaise because it behaves like a solid, but when subjected to a pressure gradient, it starts to flow,” said Arindam Banerjee, the Paul B. Reinhold Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Lehigh University.
This characteristic of mayonnaise mimics the behavior of plasma under similar conditions.
Inertial confinement fusion’s role
Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, is a potential source of limitless energy. But replicating the sun’s extreme conditions on Earth is challenging.
One approach to achieving fusion is inertial confinement fusion (ICF). This technique involves compressing and heating tiny capsules filled with hydrogen isotopes, the fuel for fusion reactions.
Under immense pressure and temperature, the fuel becomes plasma, a charged state of matter that can generate energy.
“At those extremes, you’re talking about millions of degrees Kelvin and gigapascals of pressure as you’re trying to simulate conditions in the sun,” added Banerjee.
Rayleigh-Taylor instability
However, major obstacles in ICF include the formation of hydrodynamic instabilities.
“One of the main problems associated with this process is that the plasma state forms these hydrodynamic instabilities, which can reduce the energy yield,” highlighted Banerjee.
One such instability is Rayleigh-Taylor instability. It occurs when materials of different densities are subjected to opposing pressure and density gradients.
“Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is observed in soft materials that have significant resistance to yield,” read the study .
To study Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a controlled environment, the research team turned to mayonnaise.
The “team used a custom-built, one-of-a-kind rotating wheel facility within Banerjee’s Turbulent Mixing Laboratory to mimic the flow conditions of the plasma,” explained the press release.
Mayonnaise for study
By using mayonnaise, researchers could investigate the instability without the need for extreme temperatures and pressures, which are difficult to achieve and control in a laboratory setting.
The team examined how the material properties, perturbation geometry, and acceleration rate of materials influence the transition between different phases of Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
They found conditions under which elastic recovery, where the material returns to its original shape after stress is removed, is possible.
“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,” stated Banerjee.
“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.”
Stable fusion capsule design
The team’s finding could be crucial in delaying or even suppressing the instability, thereby improving the efficiency of the fusion process.
They have found the conditions under which the elastic recovery was possible, and how it could be maximized to delay or completely suppress the instability.
It could help in the designing of fusion capsules that may “never become unstable.”
While the properties of mayonnaise differ significantly from those of the plasma used in fusion experiments, the researchers believe that their findings can be applied to a wide range of materials.
“In this paper, we have non-dimensionalized our data with the hope that the behavior we are predicting transcends these few orders of magnitude,” concluded Banerjee.
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