3 ms·
If you have pressures above 3,000psi any sudden leak or hole will be pretty catastrophic. Not an explosion like a fire explosion, something more like explosive
by wil421 4y ago
If you have pressures above 3,000psi any sudden leak or hole will be pretty catastrophic. Not an explosion like a fire explosion, something more like explosive decompression in a plane.
Anyway I think they Swedes have pinned it down to an explosion, as in a bomb, based on seismometers.
- bombcar 4y agoWater pressure at 80 meters would be about 130 psi, so the pipe is 2800 psi over "ambient" which gives it a certain amount of "pop" should it do so. But it's also designed to not pop (and do we have any examples of a catastrophic pipe failure vs a leak?).
- zasdffaa 4y agoI thought pressure of the gas as ~114 bar, which (brain whirring sounds) is much less than 2,800 PSI. MS's calculator makes it ~1,650 PSI I could be wrong.
- bombcar 4y agoCould be the difference between what the pipe is rated for and what the gas is normally at.
- wil421 4y agoIf you google Nord Stream pressure the first link is to PDF that lists 220 bar as one of the pressures levels in the Nord Stream.[1] I can’t find the pressure level at the time of the explosion. [1] https://www.nord-stream.com/download/document/10/?language=en https://www.nord-stream.com/download/document/10/?language=e...
- bombcar 4y ago>I can’t find the pressure level at the time of the explosion. Very high and then suddenly very low, I'd assume.
- regularfry 4y agoIt's designed to not pop, but implicit in the theory is that maintenance is shoddy and enough water has got in somehow to let hydrates form. Confidence in absence of pop may be misplaced.
- mannykannot 4y agoThe thing is, the author repeatedly stresses how explosive methane is, without offering any plausible source of oxygen.