Pressure Vaping (concept)

[Skepticide]

This is an off-the-wall idea that would present some design challenges for a proof of concept..

There's an interesting thing about liquid vapor, it can be compressed back into a liquid under pressure without cooling. So the hypothesis here is that if a small volume of juice is precisely heated to vaporization temp inside a pressure sealed chamber then it will stay in an aqueous state until released, at which point it will rapidly decompress into vapor the moment air is introduced.

If this works as I envision it, such an apparatus would not simply spew vapor, it would eject it at conceivably dangerous speeds. The vapor production could quite literally blow your mind. That said, I will be taking great caution in the testing of this hypothesis and I'd be grateful for any community input.

 

[cadcoke5]

the hypothesis here is that if a small volume of juice is precisely heated to vaporization temp inside a pressure sealed chamber then it will stay in an aqueous state until released, at which point it will rapidly decompress into vapor the moment air is introduced.

I think the end results are the same as the vapor generated by a theatrical fog machine. The liquid is at, essentially, normal room air pressure, and is pumped into a tube that has been heated so that the liquid turns into steam. Since the steam is very roughly about 1,000 larger in volume than the liquid, it results in the steam being rapidly ejected from the other end of the tube. Once the steam leaves the tube, it rapidly cools and returns to its liquid state. But, the liquid is now in the form of many tiny droplets we call vapor.

Your pressurized method doesn't change the fact that the liquid must be brought up to temperature that would form steam at atmospheric pressure. It still exits from the pressurized tank, and rapidly cools into the fog droplets. There may be a potential benefit in that the compressed liquid can be heated while the E-cig is sitting in a device on the table top, and it will retain its heat for a while. Then the part you hold does not require any electricity. It might even use one of the existing metered valves used in things like the automatic air-freshener spray cans. But, I really would not recommend experimenting with them, since the pressure increase could cause an explosion near your face.

I have seen tiny breath-freshener aerosol cans. The small size would reduce some of the harm done by an explosion, but really I think the pressures involved are so great that you just don't want to mess with heating one of those things.

I wonder if you are thinking about the aerosol spray cans normally work. They use a substance that is a gas at normal atmospheric pressure, but liquid at a reasonable pressure inside the can. Then they compress this gas into the can where they also place the liquid they want to make into a vapor. Note that the liquid they want to form into a vapor, is liquid at normal atmospheric pressure. But, inside the can they both mix together as liquids. As the nozzle is opened, both of the liquids exit the nozzle. Then, one of the liquids converts back to a gas, and as this happens, the other liquid is left behind as droplets.

I am guessing that the reason the standard aerosol method is not used for electronic cigarettes, is that the resultant vapor does not form droplets as small as the heat method produces. Can someone confirm this?

Joe Dunfee

 

[Skepticide]

Great feedback, don't have time for a lengthy response but I just want to be clear that there is definitely no aerosol in this application. Vapor is heated under pressure, then exposed to air. Physics does the rest

 

[pdib]

One thing I've noticed (and this may not apply?), when e-liquid is kept at warmer than room temp., it looses the vibrancy of it's flavor. This is a typical problem in Genisis style atomizers, where the wick is heating the juice in the tank. So, however, this might work, heated juice shouldn't be kept waiting.

 

[Skepticide]

Aye, well I did say a small volume of juice, for example in a capillary tube that can hold a few drops worth. However, this is mainly because heating up an entire tank would be horribly slow and inefficient.

This concept would necessitate a separate reservoir from which to reload the vapor chamber, which would coincidentally help maintain your reserve juice by isolating it from the heating element. For this thread though, the focus is not on practicality, but on proof of concept. All in pursuit of the ultimate vape.