I was reading about some peoples ideas re: making diamonds and I thought: If you could make large diamonds (say 8-10cm wide by 30cm cylinders) using high pressure and lasers with modified wavelengths and vaporized carbon etc. It could have major heat distribution repercussions. If you have read my old idea “Earth Battery” I mentioned digging a deep hole and using the heat of the earth’s crust closer to the mantle to heat large volumes of water and turn turbines. Making many large diamonds could streamline that process by bringing heat to the surface. A column of diamond cylinders could be driven into the earth to a depth where the earths crust begins to become plastic. Because diamond conducts heat at nearly the same rate at witch it conducts sound (~1200m/s) the top of the column would be nearly as hot as the bottom. Heat streets (a Canadian dream), boil water to produce power or heat buildings, all for only the phenomenal original capital and minimal maintenance.
-- LED Prism, Sep 29 2006

Interesting to read that diamond is a good thermal conductor.

/A column of diamond cylinders could be driven into the earth /

The diamond column would break, unless you mean to say that a suitable hole is pre-drilled. Diamond is hard, but not particularly tough when compared with many more mainstream engineering materials.
-- Texticle, Oct 03 2006


Yes - remember that hardness does not mean tensile strength, shear strength, and all that good stuff.

Because diamond is so hard, it doesn't flex under pressure - it shatters.
-- DesertFox, Oct 06 2006


//Because diamond conducts heat at nearly the same rate at witch it conducts sound//
Wrong.
-- ldischler, Oct 06 2006


Yeah, [id], what units are we using here for thermal conductivity and speed of sound? metres per second - no that's wrong, um.. internal dampening (ability to transfer sound without losses), -no wrong, um thermal conductivity (1000-2500 W/m.K), no, ummm...

hmmm.

Diamond is good for both those things. It is so hard and its compressive strength is so high that the speed of sound is very high, and there is almost no internal dampening to reduce transmitted vibrations. It conducts heat very well. Don't try to compare the two properties, however.

In terms of the system as a whole, it won't be very energy efficient or cost effective. The cost and energy requirements to make large ammounts of diamond are huge. This thing would take ages to pay for itself.
-- Custardguts, Oct 09 2006


Rather spend the money on more feasible eco projects.
-- baslisks, Oct 09 2006



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