Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!umich!dgsi!gregc
From: gregc@cimage.com (Greg Cronau)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: OIL FIRES
Message-ID: <1991Mar30.221327.7823@cimage.com>
Date: 30 Mar 91 22:13:27 GMT
References: <1991Mar28.143241.1@dev8.mdcbbs.com>
Reply-To: gregc@dgsi.UUCP (Greg Cronau/10000)
Organization: Cimage Corp, Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 48

In article <1991Mar28.143241.1@dev8.mdcbbs.com> rivero@dev8.mdcbbs.com writes:
>I don't know why this group is covering this subject, but
>
>Okay, would be firefighters, let's see what we really face.
>
>1. The normal pressure at the wellhead is well over 100 PSI,
>with an extremely high flow rate (figure most wellhead pipes are
>about 10 - 16 inches in diameter). That eliminates any slow
>approach to controling the well fire.
>
>2. The heat of burning petroleum is enough to not only melt the top
>of the wellhead pipe itself, but to turn the sand in the
>immediate vicinity to glass. That means that whatever event happens
>must happen quickly to withstand the short exposure to heat,
>and at the same time prevent the possability of reignition.
>
>  So, how about we simply take a long lead cone, lift it
>with a very tall crane, aim well, and drop it into the open
>wellhead pipe. It's own mass and intertia "drill" it
>down and seal the pipe instantly.  
>
>
>				Mike

The problem with this is that the wellhead presure is not just "well over
100 PSI" it is more like well over 1000 PSI. Your lead cone would not only
have to *very* heavy, and therefore *huge*, it would have to be dropped from
a great height to have enough kenetic energy to overcome the tremendous 
presure coming out of the wellhead. You couldn't get the acurracy you would
need to hit the pipe from the altitude you'd have to drop it from.

While I'm at it, I'll put in my $0.02 on the Dome-covered-with-shuttle-tiles-
over-the-fire-idea. The problem I see here is that alot of people still seem
to be confusing the concepts of temperature and heat. The shuttle tiles are
designed to withstand a very high delta T, but they are not specifically
designed for a large quantity of *heat*, and that's what you have with an
oilwell fire. Also, those tiles are *fragile*! Even if the dome was made of
16 inch thick steel plate to withstand the tremendous pressures present,
the layer of tiles attached to the dome would be disintegrated by the jet
of oil coming out of the well as soon as it hit them. It would look like
leaves blowing around in fall!

gregc@cimage.com

P.s. I just thought of a scale experiment. Get your garden hose. Mount it so
t points straight up. Turn the water on full. Now try dropping very heavy
weights into the stream to block the flow. I'm betting they will all be
knocked aside by the flow.