Robert Lynn wrote:
sparkyy0007 over at talk polywell did a basic FE analysis of the
reactor box, assuming 1/8th inch steel plate and 1bar internal pressure.
http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3200&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1200
<http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3200&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1200>
But the attached picuture is a nice illustration of why engineers
don't build square pressure vessels, and why Rossi should listen to
others.
He should, but he won't.
Those comments at Talk Polywell are pretty good. I do not want to bother
to register, but if you are a member please tell "Crawdaddy" that he
(it?) is welcome to send me a copy of the finished analysis for the
RossiData folder.
Someone there mentioned this folder. I think I will add a news item
describing it, to attract more readers.
I would like an analysis with a little more detail than the message now
has, and also one signed by a human being rather than a crustacean.
(Or was that analysis by "Sparky"? Anyway, I need the real name of the
person.)
I agree with these comments:
"I would accept no less than a design reviewed and certified by a
professional engineer, installed by experienced contractors using
certified welders. Sober oversight is necessary to avoid tragedy. . . ."
"I really do hope that Rossi is on to something, but man-o-man has he
been working overtime to convince folks otherwise.
I am with Giorgio, 110%, doing what he is doing, he is running an ever
greater risk of hurting someone. I have seen several steam ruptures on
10s of megawatt plants. The worst one I saw, I was about 15 feet away
when it popped, and it was just a 1/2inch (as I recall) line feeding a
trap, that the bonnet blew off. If I had been next to it, I would have
not just gotten cooked, I would have lost body parts and/or been perf'd.
High energy steam is not meant as a toy. . . ."
That is exactly the kind of thing my dad used to say.
By the way, just because this person is describing a multi-megawatt
plant that does not mean that the steam line rupture he saw was 10 MW or
more. It might have been 1 MW, or much less. Inside these plants there
are lines of different sizes running every which direction, with varying
amounts of steam, used to operate peripheral equipment I suppose. You
can see examples of this in the photographs of the internals at
Fukushima, prior to the accident. It is now an incredible tangle of
smashed equipment.
I was in the engine room of a decommissioned WWII aircraft carrier the
other day. The complexity of it and the number of steam lines running in
different directions is mind-boggling. I cannot imagine what Hell it
must have been after one of these ships was hit by a torpedo or bomb.
People not killed by the ordinance would have been cooked by the steam.
Doing emergency repairs afterwards would have been a nightmare. They had
redundant pipes and other equipment so they could re-route steam and
electricity around damaged areas, but it still must have been a
nightmare. It seemed even more crowded than the freight and passenger
ship engine rooms I have been in.
Just operating a ship like that was hazardous, never mind going into
battle with it.
- Jed
