Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[Scubadives]

Ur crazy if you read into that thinking I was referring to the danger of water bing the same as oil! I was using it as an example of the minute flow of oil. People think this spill is like a volcano spewing. I was showing an exaple indicating that a flow of that rate is manageable by 1 person.

The drill stem is only 9.75 inch and the riser is 20" there is multiple kinks, the blow out preventer
might have partially activated, and there is no telling if the
annular is still intact the kick might have collapsed that also.

 

[laguna230diver]

either way oil has such a detrimental effect to the enivornment that the power of its impact outweighs a comparison to a guy with a firehose. Its like a CFC, one tiny bit does a LOT of damage.

 

[Scubadives]

How Everything Works - Water Distribution Home Page captain I was refering to this, your gonna have to have pumps and hose that can withstand the extreme environment. A mile of pipe or hose in 2-3 knot current will act like the string of a bass guitar but at a lower frequency. Also how are they going to anchor the dome over the leaks?

 

[The Chairman]

The Captain is referring to the "head pressure" involved. Oil is lighter than water, so their will be a negative head pressure at the surface (but not much). What ever pump capacity they used on the rig will suffice here. IOW, they have already speced this out. The same goes for the pipe.

In a well the head pressure is from the top of the water table to the highest point the water has to reach.

 

[Scubadives]

Right but is anyone here adding in friction loss for a mile of hose flowing a large amount of water it's huge

 

[AquaExplorer]

If the thing is not stopped it could kill the Gulf and the Keys.

N

No it will not. Damn...the hysteria and "freaking out" of some in this country is getting old.

Is this a problem? Yes....but guess what, we will deal with it.

I just hope that this insane emotional hysteria does NOT derail more drilling off the coast.

 

[dmoore19]

The Captain is referring to the "head pressure" involved. Oil is lighter than water, so their will be a negative head pressure at the surface (but not much). What ever pump capacity they used on the rig will suffice here. IOW, they have already speced this out. The same goes for the pipe.

In a well the head pressure is from the top of the water table to the highest point the water has to reach.

That is correct, sort of. Oil is lighter than water. Think of it as boyancy. Oil is boyant in water. That is why it will rise to the surface. I would imagine the crude is around 7.0 ppg. Sea water (on the surface) is around 8.55 ppg. When calculating the hydrostatic head the formula is (for example) 8.33 X .052 X depth. so a column of fresh water (8.33ppg) at 10000' would have a hydrostatic head of 4331.6 psi. a column seawater (8.55ppg)would have a hydrostatic pressure (at 10,000') of 4446 psi and a column of 7.0 ppg crude would have 3640 psi. So the pressure on the outside of a funnel connected to the surface with a hose the pressure differential would be 806 PSI at the surface. If the hose was filled with crude the oil would flow to the surface with 806 psi given the variables I have presented. Friction losses would play a role in the flow rate as well as the diameter of the hose. But the hydrostatic pressure would not change regardless of the diameter of the hose.

Maybe that will help people understand it, maybe not.

 

[AquaExplorer]

I would absolutely sue BP... FO SHO

Why? They are doing something that is absolutely CRITICAL to our survival as a nation. They follow all mandated legal safety rules and put in place training and testing to attempt to prevent what has happened.

I am just tired of the ego and arrogance of American's today that believe that NOTHING bad ever happens, even if one follows all the rules.

If BP did all that was required and something failed, then why should they be sued?

 

[The Chairman]

That is correct, [-]sort of[/-].

I fixed it for you!

Actually, yours is a far more lucid and understandable way of looking at it. The point is: the physics of getting the oil OUT of the ocean has not changed. It hasn't gotten better or worse. Once they connect the pipe to the surface, they won't have to re-engineer the wheel (so to speak). However, the big problem is in connecting that pipe so that they can control the flow once more.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

I just hope that this insane emotional hysteria does NOT derail more drilling off the coast.

Yes, please, lets keep looking for the easy way out. Certainly we should just drill, drill, drill, drill......

I wonder how much the world would change if no one had to worry about where energy was going to come from? While THIS IS an environmental disaster, finding renewable sources of energy is great for more than just environmental protection.

Get a clue, without the hysteria of oil spills and outcry about environmental protection, suits would cut corners worrying only about the bottom line, and we wouldn't have eco tourism, places to dive, and amazing animal species to experience. We would instead only know the fully selfish, parasitic potential of our great great species.