Speculation on the Teller-Ulam design.

[ccw8076]

The Teller-Ulam design in short the modern design for a hydrogen bomb.

The actual method of creating, combining, and exploding such a weapon is by nature all kinds of classified, but from the many bits and pieces of information which have trickled down to the public domain over the years, several speculations can be made about its true design.

In basic, a hydrogen bomb must have A: An initial implosion of plutonium 235 which releases neutrons.
B: A secondary of uranium encased Lithium 6 deuteride with a plutonium core
C: A bomb casing

Now, anyone with enough conventional explosive and uranium can make a "Uranium Gun" model bomb, but the science behind the H-Bomb is quite more complex.

For a picture of the design components: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Teller-Ulam_device.png

However the actual design is quite contested. Basically, When the initial is imploded, the plutonium reaches critical mass and converts a small portion of itself to pure active energy under Einstein's E=MC^2 principle.

This results of the plutonium releasing its neutrons which ricochet around the casing until they strike the Deuteride and both heat and irradiate it causing it to fuse into helium and release megatons of explosion energy.

Simple.

The design is different.
In "Independent" research I have come across a simple but very interesting geometrical principle. In a perfect Ellipse, A Ray extended out of one focus will with the exception of the axis reflect to the other focus. As well the distance between any reflected ray from one focus to the other is exactly the same,
basically: A+B=C+D.

This leads me to suspect that the Teller Design is actually an ellipse instead of The bullet shape others have thought it to be. Since a nuclear particle, neutron, travels at the same speed as any other neutron, namely at the speed of light, it will travel the distance between the two focii at the same time and strike the other focus simultaneously.

This lends itself to the bomb in three ways. One if the bomb is elliptical, then the Lithium Deuteride must be encased in a spherical uranium tamper, which would increase the scope and range of the explosive energy, and the plutonium needed for the initial and secondary reactions will be significantly lower because there are no wasted or "Loose' electrons. Finally, since Lithium Deuteride has a short half life, this design would ease up the access to the Deuteride bottle.

However, even more recently, I had to re-work my drawings and plans.
I remembered Newton's Third law, For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. From this theorem, I think that if an ellipse is to be achieved at the moment of neutron release, then the top of the ellipse must be shrunken in like a bowling pin if you will. since the First detonation of the conventional explosives to implode the plutonium will also act outwardly against the top of the casing, bending it outwards. That action is probably described in an equation which I don't know; I am not an explosives geometrician.

Therefore, I speculate that the design consists of a perfect elliptical bottom and a reflexive, inwardly focused top, to create the world's most powerful explosive, the energy which binds the universe together.


This is the fruits of my research, if anyone has any comments that they are willing to share that would be great. I would LOVE if someone had the equation by which the casing is pushed outwards. Anyway thanks a lot.

[sprocket]

A few comments:
6-LiD is not unstable in a nuclear sense, however it is moisture and air sensitive. I highly doubt anyone capable of building a thermonuclear device would fail to construct an airtight container for it, thus it can sit in the device indefinitely.

It is not the action of neutrons, but rather intense heat radiation that initiates the secondary in the device. Heat radiation, unlike neutrons, does travel at the speed of light. The immense radiation pressure will, however, deform the reflector. You may have a point in that it expands to the optimal shape rather than starting at it.

I think one of the big problems is creating an even pressure distribution along the walls of the secondary. This is probably required to achieve high efficiency (instead of just ejecting fusionable material).

[megalomania]

Someone has been reading the latest issue of Scientific American eh? They have a picture of one of these in the issue. I doubt the fedgov will tip its hand and display anything truly useful from the graphic, but you never know. The article mentioned they are using a new type of neutron deflector, but the exact material is classified. It is a "green" material, replacing a toxic metal. I don't even know why they bother considering it's still filled with plutonium and tritium gas, but that's the government for you.

[nbk2000]

100% of nukes around today are unexploded (to date), and unless WW3 kicks off, they'll eventually have to be disassembled and disposed off. That's where the 'green' part comes in.

The less toxic crap in the nuke, the less they have to pay out for toxic disposal.

[ccw8076]

Sprocket:

Yes, you are right about the use of heat energy to initiate the secondary.

I put down neutrons as a basic way of seeing the reaction take place in several steps. I did not put down the section on the plasma pressure step because I am new and I thought that my post was a little long as it was. I did not want to be ostentatious.

Basically what I found was that all the parts in the bomb were held in place by polystyrene foam. The release of neutrons and their passage through the foam heats and plasmizes it which expands to put enormous pressure on the secondary. This pressure acts as if the secondary were compressed in the same manner as the initial, and that, combined with the action of the plutonium core of the secondary raises the heat inside the casing to roughly 10 million degrees Celsius enabling lithium-6 to convert to helium.

[nbk2000]

I read a honeycomb structure of plastic is coated with a metallic neutron absorbent material that flashes into plasma upon detonation of the first-stage fission trigger.

The honeycomb runs longways to the expected path of the neutrons, so that they'll ricochet down the length of the narrow tubes, giving ample opportunity for the neutrons to interact with the absorbent.

[ccw8076]

I know that the H-Bombs can come in multile forms depending on what purpose is needed out of them.

The neutron bomb is used to eject loose neutrons into the atmosphere causing massive radiation damage, while the traditional bomb tries to slow the passage of heat and energy to get a greater percentage of the plutonium to convert, not unlike using wadding in a black powder rifle.

I think that the filler can differ with the kind of bomb used.