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OK, here's my question to my tech friend and his
reply below that . . .
Rick and Marcia wrote:
> Regarding subs: you mentioned "canned lightning". Given the
medium -
> seawater - in which a sub operates, what technical hurdles would you say > apply here? Obviously letting seawater into the cap is a big no-no. > > What about external pressure? Are there gaseous (hence compressible) > elements to an ultracap? Are they solid through and through? Or are the > internals porous, thus compressible? > > What about safety "fuses". You mention melting wires. Would the safeties > be conventional, just heavier for the ultra's? Or are we addressing the > same issues of "supporting components" we discussed earlier? IBM tech replied:
"Seawater is a
reasonable conductor (dissolved mineral content), so if it is "let into
the cap" it will short out internally. That isn't normally a problem since the "equalization" of the energy potential is all internal to the cap. Probably boil/vaporize the seawater and the expansion of the water might explode the cap. But that about all that might happen. If seawater shorted out the external connections, same idea but now you are dealing with an external "boiling water" situation. The dielectric comes in many types. It can be liquid/oil consistency or solid. Don't have any idea what the current ultracaps are using. Standard safety high voltage fuses might work, but I doubt they would use these. I suspect it would be more along the lines of electronics designed for this. Keep in mind if you want to take full advantage of this tech, you have to be able to recharge as fast as it can take it - and a standard fuse would prevent this." hope this all helps Cheers,
Rick Lucertini
Vancouver
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