Novel calorimetry technique for pulsed wires

A novel calorimetry technique was used to determine the energy delivered to a wire during a fast, low energy pulse. Following earlier work at dc by McKubre, et al., at SRI International, the diagnostic was applied to fast pulses for the first time. The experiment consisted of a low mass deuterium loaded wire placed in a vacuum flask filled with liquid nitrogen. A mass flow meter was used to detect the change in the production rate of nitrogen gas from the liquid bulk to determine energy released from the wire. This high sensitive technique permits precise energy balance measurements. Calorimetry techniques will be discussed and results presented.