question on the gulf oil spill.

I was watching a completely non related repair today and I saw a tech do something I had never thought of and I instantly thought of the gulf oil spill.

He needed to pull the lower radiator hose from a car and replace the radiator, he had one of those red cap plugs from the new radiator and a little bulb inflated bladder.

With one hand he pulled the hose from the radiator banged the red cap on the old cooler and slid the partially inflated bladder into the hose and pumped it up a couple squeezes. He spilled about a quart of fluid on the floor (in a bucket for the most part) but overall made very little mess.

The bladder made me think about the oil pipe. Why can't there be a plug/ bladder that would fit the hole temporarily until a proper cap can be fitted?

I bet there would be an issue with inflation/strength at 5000 feet below the surface.

It sounds like a simple problem until that fact comes up.

2200 psi is a lot of pressure to inflate against.

theres a genius from long island, ny thats suggested the same thing, but with used car tires instead. sounds like it could work, but you'd need tons of pressure at that depth, not sure if the tires could handle it, first of all i would think the inward pressure before inflating would unseat the bead. unless you used water or something but then the strength of the tires still is a factor.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/leak_solution_Zw3RdLcmYcdsA4UAz6WMwM#ixzz0phF8fb9b

And how much pressure does your diaphram have to hold back. What's the rate the oil is pumping out?

What about a vented solid piece with an expandable outer section, as it lowers into the cavity the vent allows the pressure through to release, then you secure it to the inner walls with the expanding seal then close the vents.

Granted useless for todays problem.

Pure genius, I'll make it, you get out your Speedo.

ewww... Mofo in a Harold Thong...

2200 psi air hosed shoved up the arse of the BP execs. Then cram as many of these execs that you can round up into the well. If needed-stuff execs pockets with the millions of dollars they have horded to help swell up the seal.

After it's all sealed up they can then sell us the oil/gas at $.10 a gallon for the next hundred years.

i've had this vision of jamming something down in the pipe and expanding it out to stop the leak. it would be something that goes in with minimal restriction to the oil flow, then slowly opens up and uses the pressure of the oil to keep it sealed.

why dont they just turn it off until its welded?

novaderrik wrote: i've had this vision of jamming something down in the pipe and expanding it out to stop the leak. it would be something that goes in with minimal restriction to the oil flow, then slowly opens up and uses the pressure of the oil to keep it sealed.

So, kinda like a giant tampon?

What do you do when a maxipad catches on fire?

Throw it on the ground and tampon it.

John Brown wrote: What do you do when a maxipad catches on fire? Throw it on the ground and tampon it.

I laughed

we must nuke it, comrades.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPNQoTlacU

novaderrik wrote: i've had this vision of jamming something down in the pipe and expanding it out to stop the leak. it would be something that goes in with minimal restriction to the oil flow, then slowly opens up and uses the pressure of the oil to keep it sealed.

the problem is that until they just cut off the pipe, it wans't an "opening" that you could just put something into. it was basically a pipe that had been bent severely and split open. they had to cut it off to fit this new containment cap.

cutting it off meant that there was now no impediment to the oil flow, and that was the big risk of doing it this way. but it seems to have begun to work, although the seal is not perfect and there is still some leakage.

also, the oil pressure is something like 15,000psi, so i would imagine almost anything put into the pipe would be blown right back out.

personally, i would be surprised if the new regs do not require pre-drilling of a relief well. that is the only failsafe way to prevent this in the future. in fact, if it were up to me i would require that every existing well be retrofitted with a relief well.

grimmelshanks wrote: why dont they just turn it off until its welded?

That's why we have this problem to start with... something went wrong with the "off" switch.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

grimmelshanks wrote: why dont they just turn it off until its welded?

That's why we have this problem to start with... something went wrong with the "off" switch.

actually, 3 or 4 failsafes all failed. it was the rare perfect storm of bad events that led to this.

novaderrik wrote: actually, 3 or 4 failsafes all failed. it was the rare perfect storm of bad events that led to this.

That, and Evil Rich White Guys who just want to destroy the world for a buck.

end of problem

novaderrik wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

grimmelshanks wrote: why dont they just turn it off until its welded?

That's why we have this problem to start with... something went wrong with the "off" switch.

actually, 3 or 4 failsafes all failed. it was the rare perfect storm of bad events that led to this.

"bad events" including deferred maintenance or known problems on those failsafes.

Buzz Killington wrote:

novaderrik wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

grimmelshanks wrote: why dont they just turn it off until its welded?

That's why we have this problem to start with... something went wrong with the "off" switch.

actually, 3 or 4 failsafes all failed. it was the rare perfect storm of bad events that led to this.

"bad events" including deferred maintenance or known problems on those failsafes.

hindsight is 20/20- especially when something happens to make every person in the world with internet access into an expert on the subject at hand.

this is the kind of event that advances technology and procedures when it happens. up to this point, the failsafes and procedures that they had in place were good enough to create a sense of security among the people that were actually out there doing the job every day. the bottom line is that if the people doing the job didn't think it was safe, i don't think they would have been out there no matter how much money they were getting paid. but they also all knew that there was always the risk of things going horribly bad.

now things will change. more layers of safety will be added, and more 'fees' will be enacted, and more politicians will make more election year promises to "get tough" on oil companies.. it will be more expensive for the companies that do the drilling out there. but don't worry about them, they will just pass the costs onto the consumers and they will have a couple of bad quarters before their shareholders start to see better returns on their investments. so in the end, it will all work out..