17 ms·

So ship shakes. The aluminum ore, bauxite, turns to liquid due to pressure increasing (or friction decreasing). Ore moves to one side of the ship. Pressure drop

So ship shakes. The aluminum ore, bauxite, turns to liquid due to pressure increasing (or friction decreasing). Ore moves to one side of the ship. Pressure drops as shaking subsides. Ship becomes side heavy and lists and sinks. This is as weird as things can get with reality.

winceschwab 8y ago
It doesn’t really “turn to liquid” but really starts behaving according to fluid dynamics. Nothing melts or freezes. More to the point, the motion of the macroscopic objects (rocks, sand, dust, powder) being dumped in by conveyor belt create huge piles that slump in odd ways, as piles form, and then settle oddly.
- DonHopkins 8y ago
  To illustrate what you mean: The Abelian Sandpile Model, aka the Bak–Tang–Wiesenfeld model, is a dynamical system displaying self-organized criticality, that suggests you can't predict the behavior of adding one more grain of sand to a pile, because it might have very little effect, or it could cascade into a huge landslide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality >In physics, self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of dynamical systems that have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behaviour thus displays the spatial and/or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phase transition, but without the need to tune control parameters to a precise value, because the system, effectively, tunes itself as it evolves towards criticality. >The concept was put forward by Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld ("BTW") in a paper published in 1987 in Physical Review Letters, and is considered to be one of the mechanisms by which complexity arises in nature. Its concepts have been enthusiastically applied across fields as diverse as geophysics, physical cosmology, evolutionary biology and ecology, bio-inspired computing and optimization (mathematics), economics, quantum gravity, sociology, solar physics, plasma physics, neurobiology and others. >SOC is typically observed in slowly driven non-equilibrium systems with extended degrees of freedom and a high level of nonlinearity. Many individual examples have been identified since BTW's original paper, but to date there is no known set of general characteristics that guarantee a system will display SOC.
  - deleted 8y ago
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rory096 8y ago
They refer to "the relatively new solid bulk cargo bauxite". Surely bauxite shipping is as old as the advent of electrolysis (Hall–Héroult + Bayer processes)?
- CPLX 8y ago
  I assumed the word new in that usage referred to it being newly taken from the ground, thus having more unpredictable moisture content. Bauxite is basically just dirt.
- deleted 8y ago
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- guitarbill 8y ago
  This video talks of shipping bauxite from South America to the US in 1941: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK4dEEoKNiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK4dEEoKNiE Similarly, Wikipedia claims bulk carriers have been around since 1850: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_carrier Doesn't sound all that new.
- hinkley 8y ago
  I think you guys are parsing that sentence as “relatively new cargo, bauxite”. At the top of the article they define “solid bulk cargo” as a shipping jargon term, for a fine granulated material. This seems like a dangerous misnomer to me... I’m assuming that means that historically, the refiner owner the pulverizing equipment and shipped in bauxite rock or gravel as raw material. When you hear of liquefaction in terms of earthquake damage, they are always talking about saturation of fine materials. Saturated gravel doesn’t behave as badly as saturated sand or clay.
- ocschwar 8y ago
  Not over long distances. It's still ore, after all. Not something you want to ship further than you have to.
Giho 8y ago
Could it help by creating a vaccum, at least lower the pressure? If the container is airtight and can withstand the forces the pressure would keep it solid?

winceschwab 8y ago

It doesn’t really “turn to liquid” but really starts behaving according to fluid dynamics. Nothing melts or freezes. More to the point, the motion of the macroscopic objects (rocks, sand, dust, powder) being dumped in by conveyor belt create huge piles that slump in odd ways, as piles form, and then settle oddly.

DonHopkins 8y ago
To illustrate what you mean: The Abelian Sandpile Model, aka the Bak–Tang–Wiesenfeld model, is a dynamical system displaying self-organized criticality, that suggests you can't predict the behavior of adding one more grain of sand to a pile, because it might have very little effect, or it could cascade into a huge landslide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality >In physics, self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of dynamical systems that have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behaviour thus displays the spatial and/or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phase transition, but without the need to tune control parameters to a precise value, because the system, effectively, tunes itself as it evolves towards criticality. >The concept was put forward by Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld ("BTW") in a paper published in 1987 in Physical Review Letters, and is considered to be one of the mechanisms by which complexity arises in nature. Its concepts have been enthusiastically applied across fields as diverse as geophysics, physical cosmology, evolutionary biology and ecology, bio-inspired computing and optimization (mathematics), economics, quantum gravity, sociology, solar physics, plasma physics, neurobiology and others. >SOC is typically observed in slowly driven non-equilibrium systems with extended degrees of freedom and a high level of nonlinearity. Many individual examples have been identified since BTW's original paper, but to date there is no known set of general characteristics that guarantee a system will display SOC.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

rory096 8y ago

They refer to "the relatively new solid bulk cargo bauxite". Surely bauxite shipping is as old as the advent of electrolysis (Hall–Héroult + Bayer processes)?

CPLX 8y ago
I assumed the word new in that usage referred to it being newly taken from the ground, thus having more unpredictable moisture content. Bauxite is basically just dirt.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
guitarbill 8y ago
This video talks of shipping bauxite from South America to the US in 1941: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK4dEEoKNiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK4dEEoKNiE Similarly, Wikipedia claims bulk carriers have been around since 1850: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_carrier Doesn't sound all that new.
hinkley 8y ago
I think you guys are parsing that sentence as “relatively new cargo, bauxite”. At the top of the article they define “solid bulk cargo” as a shipping jargon term, for a fine granulated material. This seems like a dangerous misnomer to me... I’m assuming that means that historically, the refiner owner the pulverizing equipment and shipped in bauxite rock or gravel as raw material. When you hear of liquefaction in terms of earthquake damage, they are always talking about saturation of fine materials. Saturated gravel doesn’t behave as badly as saturated sand or clay.
ocschwar 8y ago
Not over long distances. It's still ore, after all. Not something you want to ship further than you have to.

Giho 8y ago

Could it help by creating a vaccum, at least lower the pressure? If the container is airtight and can withstand the forces the pressure would keep it solid?