AndyW

My Feedback: (1)

I live in a small mining town and the underground workings can go an awful long way, a mile or more. The elevator they use to get the miners down is called a "cage" and one of the safety issues is the cables used to lower this thing. The cable is so long that the lower you go, cable weight is a significant factor.

The pressure of the oil gusher in the Gulf is so strong that efforts to cap it have proved impossible. However, here, http://www.horizonedocs.com/artform.php I made this proposal.

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This incorporates how a needle valve works and assumes that the pipe on the ocean floor, down to the oil, is relatively straight and is long enough to work. You make a long needle with a very gradual taper. You insert the needle into the pipe and lower it until the eventual diameter of the needle matches that of the ID of the pipe and closes off the oil/gas flow. This would work because the small diameter of the tip of the needle would not be blown back by the oil pressure. As the needle is lowered, the taper would impede the flow gradually and this, in turn, would lessen the pressure impacting the needle's placement. This would be a LONG needle and it's own weight would assist in countering the pressure of the oil flow. Depending on the length of the pipe, the needle could even be a simple cable. As in mining, the cable that lowers the cage underground can be very heavy when a substantial length is played out. This cable could carry the working part of the needle to the head of the pipe to seal it off. Variations on the needle concept could be worked out, a heavy, upper, portion could assist in resisting the oil pressure. This could be stabilized by the weight of the cable/needle below. The sealing portion could be made of a soft metal like lead to help seal the pipe if the opening isn't smooth.


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Would this work ?

AndyW

My Feedback: (1)

So much for that idea. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/...-may-have.html

dckrsn

Not a problem.
A piece of silicon tubing around the threaded portion of the needle should do the trick.

BMatthews

It still wouldn't work since even though the initial point won't see much pressure as the pipe is further closed the pressure on the needle will rise in relation to the cross section area of the amount of needle inserted at the mouth. So taper or not it'll see the full PSI as it closes.

And yeah, this is off topic. I'll get around to closing it sooner or later when I have some time.....

Tom Nied

J B Weld and a metal tapered plug.

AndyW

My Feedback: (1)

Actually, with a long and gradual taper, much of the pressure will be exerted against the pipe walls and the needle itself. You spread the pressure over a much larger, surface area. The tendency would be to "squirt" the needle out but the weight of the long cable will pull the needle down. The engineers can work out the math, the size and length of the cable, the taper of the needle etc. The problem of trying to cap the pipe in the normal manner is that you're trying to push down. Pulling is a more stable configuration. And a tapered needle, once wedged in place, should hold better than anything else.

One thing no one talks about is how this could affect the Atlantic conveyor belt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermohaline_circulation that delivers warm water, and weather, to the British Isles and Europe. From there, the entire planet's weather could be severely impacted.

In any case, I hope they get this thing worked out soon.

DeviousDave

At this point, I'm ready to use the Russian approach an nuke it closed. We have done enough damage already that the people who work for the Census now will have stable employment in the clean up once that gravy train runs dry. Gotta keep those unemployment numbers up somehow-we've already turned down 13 different countries who have offered cleanup assistance.

Does it bother anyone that Goldman Sachs and a number of other players/well connected people sold their BP stock the 2-3 days before it blew? Accuse me of wearing tinfoil, but this stinks to high hell. Have you noticed how little press the economy, both ours and Europe's, has been getting since this well blew up?

Things that make you go HMmmmmmm..... I'm sorry if this post is too far off topic, but people need to be talking about this.

BMatthews

Well, there's lots of other places to talk about it other than a model airplane forum.

Back to our toys........