[TheForge] Re: incompressible water expands suddenly, film at eleven

[Andy Vida]

"info@reciprodyne.com" wrote:
> 
> > From: Andy Vida <osan@netlabs.net>
> > As far as I know there is no terrestrially
> > attainable pressure that will compress a body of pure water.
> 
> Dear Andy,
> 
> You are probably right in a theoretical sense,

> It is never wise to assume a pressurized fluid system is not somehow storing
> energy, whether it is the fluid or the structure. In my experience, it is
> usually a combination of both.

	Well, my take would be simply to never assume that a 
	pressurized system isn't storing energy, regardless 
	of configuration.
> 
> As a teenager, I was doing a hydro test on traction engine boiler. Routine
> stuff, done it before, hum de dum.

	How large was this boiler?  Given a large enough boiler
	and sufficient pressure, I can easily see that the structure
	could elastically deform enough to do what you describe.
	This isn't to say that there was no entrained air, mind you,
	but that entrained air doesn't necessarily explain the event,
	further meanin that I would not trust that complete removal
	of all dissolved gases to fix that particular concern.

	I don't know what sorts of volume of regular old air will
	dissolve into water at ambient pressures.  Anyone have
	an idea?  I cannot imagine it would be a whole lot, but
	then as I said I really don't know this.
> 
> The point is, theoretical conditions never occur in nature, or in industry
> for that matter, so, frankly, many theoretical discussions become moot in
> real life. Therefore, ipso-fatso, to expect theoretical results from a
> potentially dangerous real-life system is maybe not very smart. 

	I agree, but as far as I am aware, even in the real world
	water in not compressible.  I will happily stand down on this
	if someone can demonstrate otherwise.  And here I am speaking
	of changes in density at constant temperature.  Obviously we
	can alter water density by heating or cooling.

	So tell us, did the boiler in question go into service?