UTA Large Perpetual Cloud Chamber

Liquid Supply and Circulation

Layne Price

Introduction

• Liquid Supply and Circulation Group: Jessica Jette, Daniel Thomas, Layne Price

• Work closely in tandem with structural design group

Basic Idea for the LPCC

• Charged particles enter a super-cooled isopropyl alcohol vapor forming droplets along the particle’s trajectory, leaving a visible trace

• This visible track can then be taken as evidence for the entrance of these charged particles into the chamber

Motivation

• To design a perpetual cloud chamber with joint input from the physics and chemistry students

• This would be the largest such chamber in existence

• Display the chamber in the CPB foyer in order to stimulate interest in physics, and in particular high energy particles

• Could be used for both instruction and laboratory measurement

Design Requirements and Considerations

• Develop a perpetual system that both supplies the cloud chamber with enough alcohol to operate and circulates the liquid so that alcohol will rarely have to be input into the chamber

• 4-part design: Supply Reservoir, Heat Bath and Pump System, Jets, Alcohol Exit Mechanism

Final Design

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2

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3

1. Isopropyl Alcohol Reservoir

• Large, well insulated, plastic reservoir

• Will hold all the alcohol necessary for perpetual operation of the LPCC

• Timed valve

2. Heat Bath and Pump System

• Second reservoir that acts as a heat bath• Heat the alcohol to promote faster evaporation

rate• Electrically operated heating coils and pump• T-connection• Second timed valve• Set, controlled alcohol level

3. Liquid Ejection onto the Evaporation Troughs

• Series of T-connections that attach to 180 degree alcohol misters

• Eject the alcohol onto the felt balls in the chamber’s evaporation trough

4. Chamber Exit Mechanism

• Angled trench at edge of chamber’s bottom• Alcohol condensation will slowly disperse along

the bottom of the chamber to these trenches• Alcohol will return to the supply reservoir to

circulate again

Test and Functionality

• Supply Reservoir– Simple to build, no foreseeable problem– Operates by gravity—must be higher than

heat bath– Yet to determine necessary volume and time

interval for final design

Tests and Functionality

• Heat Bath and Pump System– Heat bath is the biggest unknown, yet to be built– The pump system, with timed valve, has been built and works

well– Again need to determine necessary volume and time interval for

final chamber

Tests and Functionality

• Liquid Ejection onto the Evaporation Troughs– System works well– Need structural design team to mount and

insert the tubing onto the chamber

Tests and Functionality

• Chamber Exit Mechanism– Has not been built, has not been tested– Need to build onto the structural bottom of the

chamber– We have yet to get with structural design team

to manufacture the trench system

Conclusion

• The system should work fairly well with foreseeably only minor problems

• UNLESS the exit mechanism doesn’t work• Some time will need to be put into

determining exact volumes necessary for operation and the corresponding timed intervals for the valves

• The system would seem to be able to supply the alcohol into the chamber without incident