Skip to content
Stan’s Legacy

Steam resonator

With this voltage across this plate cell at this frequency, how fast does the water reach the boil — and is it the dipoles or the current doing it?

Loading a circuit fills the slots; change any of them afterwards and the result is your variation on it. All saved circuits.

The parts

A plate cell from the library. Tubes and spheres are not plates; the heating calculation is for a uniform field between plates. About this part.

What is between the plates. Sets its loss at the frequency, its temperature, and its conductivity.

The drive

V

The peak voltage across the plates.

kHz

The frequency of the field.

From the parts

Every number handed to the simulation that you did not type, and where it came from. Each derivation that ran a calculation links to that calculation's page with these numbers in, so it can be checked alone.

  • w Water 0

    No water chosen; distilled assumed.

  • T Starting temperature 20 °C

    Starting temperature assumed at 20 °C.

  • σ Water conductivity 5 µS/cm

    Conductivity assumed at 5 µS/cm — distilled water — because the water chosen has no dissolved-solids reading.

  • A Plate area 516.1 cm²

    Plate - 2x Parallel 8" x 10"'s plate area, as recorded.

  • d Gap 6.35 mm

    Plate - 2x Parallel 8" x 10"'s gap, as recorded.

  • No water chosen, so the cell is taken as full of distilled water at 20 °C. Pick a water to change that.
  • Plate - 2x Parallel 8" x 10" is 2 cells; the heating is worked out for one pair of plates. The whole stack heats 2 times as much water with 2 times the power, so the time to the boil is the same.

Result

t Time to boil 27.01 s

To bring the water between the plates to 100 °C with no losses.

P Heating power 4.064 kW

Both mechanisms together.

r Dipole share 0.05801 ppm

How much of it the dipoles do.

E Field strength 1575 V/cm

Across the gap.

κ Dipole loss permittivity 5.214e-5

The relaxation part of ε″ at this frequency — the conduction is counted through σ, not here.

C Cell capacitance 5.764 nF

The plates as a capacitor.

ν Water volume 327.7 mL

Area times gap — what is between the plates.

With your numbers
4.064kW=(2π10kHz·ε0·5.214e-5+5µS/cm)1575V/cm2·327.7mL
LaTeX
4.064\,\mathrm{kW} = \left( 2\pi 10\,\mathrm{kHz} \cdot \varepsilon_0 \cdot 5.214e-5 + 5\,\mathrm{µS/cm} \right) 1575\,\mathrm{V/cm}^{2} \cdot 327.7\,\mathrm{mL}

Worth knowing

  • Complex permittivity and loss (Cole-Cole) — A loss tangent of 0.123 caps the circuit Q at about 8 before any copper or core losses are counted.
  • Heating water with a field: dielectric or conduction — The dipoles contribute 0.000% of the heating. At 10 kHz the water is being heated by the current through it — this is an electrode boiler, and the frequency is doing nothing the ions care about. Dipole heating overtakes conduction only in the gigahertz.
  • Heating water with a field: dielectric or conduction — The conduction heating implies a current of about 4.06 A through the water at this voltage, all of which is also electrolysing it.

This result is a link — the address bar holds your numbers, so it can be pasted into a post and opened to the same answer.

The working, step by step

  1. The plates as a capacitor, and whether the field across the gap is past what water holds.

    With these numbers
    5.764nF=ε0εr·516.1cm²·16.35mm157.5=1000V6.35mm
    LaTeX
    5.764\,\mathrm{nF} = \frac{\varepsilon_0\varepsilon_r \cdot 516.1\,\mathrm{cm²} \cdot 1}{6.35\,\mathrm{mm}} \qquad 157.5 = \frac{1000\,\mathrm{V}}{6.35\,\mathrm{mm}}

    Open this step on its own page, with these inputs

  2. What the water's dipoles do at this frequency — the relaxation loss the dielectric heating depends on, with the conduction kept separate so it is not counted twice.

    With these numbers
    80.1*=ε+εsε1+jωτ1αjσωε0
    LaTeX
    80.1^{*}(\omega) = \varepsilon_\infty + \frac{\varepsilon_s - \varepsilon_\infty}{1 + (j\omega\tau)^{1-\alpha}} - j\,\frac{\sigma}{\omega\varepsilon_0} \qquad \tan0.1234 = \frac{9.887}{80.1}
    • A loss tangent of 0.123 caps the circuit Q at about 8 before any copper or core losses are counted.

    Open this step on its own page, with these inputs

  3. The heating, by dipoles and by current, and the time to the boil.

    With these numbers
    1575V/cm=1000V6.35mm235.8µW=2π10kHz·ε0·5.214e-5·1575V/cm2·327.7mL4.064kW=5µS/cm·1575V/cm2·327.7mL4.064kW=235.8µW+4.064kW
    LaTeX
    1575\,\mathrm{V/cm} = \frac{1000\,\mathrm{V}}{6.35\,\mathrm{mm}} \qquad 235.8\,\mathrm{µW} = 2\pi 10\,\mathrm{kHz} \cdot \varepsilon_0 \cdot 5.214e-5 \cdot 1575\,\mathrm{V/cm}^{2} \cdot 327.7\,\mathrm{mL} \qquad 4.064\,\mathrm{kW} = 5\,\mathrm{µS/cm} \cdot 1575\,\mathrm{V/cm}^{2} \cdot 327.7\,\mathrm{mL} \qquad 4.064\,\mathrm{kW} = 235.8\,\mathrm{µW} + 4.064\,\mathrm{kW}
    • The dipoles contribute 0.000% of the heating. At 10 kHz the water is being heated by the current through it — this is an electrode boiler, and the frequency is doing nothing the ions care about. Dipole heating overtakes conduction only in the gigahertz.
    • The conduction heating implies a current of about 4.06 A through the water at this voltage, all of which is also electrolysing it.

    Open this step on its own page, with these inputs

What this looks like

Time to boil against gap Gap swept from 3.18 mm to 9.52 mm with everything else held at your numbers. The dashed lines cross where you are.
Time to boil against gapTime to boil rises from 6.75 s to 60.8 s as gap rises from 3.18 mm to 9.52 mm. At your gap of 6.35 mm it is 27 s.0204060802468106.35 mm27 sGap (mm)Time to boil (s)
The formula behind the curve
P=(2πf·ε0·κ+σ)E2·ν
P
Heating power, W
f
Frequency, kHz
κ
Loss permittivity
σ
Conductivity, µS/cm
E
Field strength, V/m
ν
Water volume, mL
LaTeX
P = \left( 2\pi f \cdot \varepsilon_0 \cdot κ + σ \right) E^{2} \cdot ν
What moves the answer Each input moved 10% either way, with the others held still, and the effect on time to boil.
What moves the answerTime to boil is most sensitive to Applied voltage, which moves it by about 23.5% for a 10% change. It is least sensitive to Plate area, at about 1.32e-14%.Change in the answer when each input moves by 10%-40%-20%20%40%Applied voltage±23.5Gap±21Water conductivity±11.1Starting temperature±2.5Frequency±1.2e-6Plate area±1.32e-14
The formula behind the curve
P=(2πf·ε0·κ+σ)E2·ν
P
Heating power, W
f
Frequency, kHz
κ
Loss permittivity
σ
Conductivity, µS/cm
E
Field strength, V/m
ν
Water volume, mL
LaTeX
P = \left( 2\pi f \cdot \varepsilon_0 \cdot κ + σ \right) E^{2} \cdot ν

Open the bare numbers — the same simulation on its own page, every derived value editable.