Text 27122, 70 rader
Skriven 2007-02-12 06:25:27 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 27121 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
Ärende: Explosions
==================
Bob Ackley -> Gary Braswell wrote:
 BA> Replying to a message of Gary Braswell to John Hull:

 GB>>>>>> You are probably right. I dunno about you, but I would not want to
 GB>>>>>> drive around with a bomb in the back of my car.<g>

 SD>>>>> Technically, you already do. :P

 GB>>>> Not like hydrogen.

 JH>>> Oh, please.  Does hydrogen kill you deader if it blows up than 20
 JH>>> gallons of gas blowing up?

 JH>>> That's what's called a distinction with no difference.

 GB>> Its more explosive. I can't remember which of the big three did a test
 GB>> with a collision with a hydrogen car. It affected a 3rd of a block.
 GB>> The car it hit was taken out, so were cars around, people on the
 GB>> sidewalks and one building near the accident. Other buildings were on
 GB>> fire with broken windows.

 GB>> One of the main problems with hydrogen cars is to make them safe in
 GB>> accidents.

 GB>> Sure dead is dead. But with hydrogen its more dead.

 BA> There's some glop they can put in gasoline tanks to prevent explosions if
 BA> the tank is ruptured; the gas will leak out and it will burn like h*ll
 BA> but it
 BA> won't explode.  Some if not most race cars use it, it's an expandable foam
 BA> of some sort, and it doesn't reduce tank's capacity by much IIRC.  I
 BA> suspect
 BA> the reason it isn't in general use is that it's probably expen$ive.
 BA> Can't do
 BA> that with compressed hydrogen.

 BA> A year or two ago a BNSF coal train derailed north of Plattsmouth,
 BA> Nebraska.
 BA> One of the derailed cars hit a 600 gallon propane tank used by a nearby
 BA> house.
 BA> The tank went up and took the house - about 50 feet away - with it.
 BA> Fortunately
 BA> the occupants were able to grab their kid and get out the front as the
 BA> back of the
 BA> house was disintegrating.  By the time the fire department got there
 BA> nothing was
 BA> left of the house, but about a dozen railcars full of coal (about 50
 BA> tons each) were
 BA> still burning.  Eight hours after the fire was out the main line was
 BA> reopened for
 BA> traffic with a quarter to half mile of new rail and ties (brought in
 BA> pre-assembled on
 BA> flatbed trucks, just like model railroads' 'Snap Track' only bigger
 BA> <g>), the derailed
 BA> coal hoppers had been shoved out of the way and were later sold for
 BA> scrap (they're
 BA> mostly aluminum and if they get bent up they can't be fixed for less
 BA> than the cost
 BA> of a new one).


That's all fine and dandy, but you aren't going to have hydrogen in that
quantity in a car, nor will it be compressed to that extent.  It also won't be
compressed in a tank like that, it will be in a fuel cell.  In any case, if
they can design a nuclear bomb so that it survives an accidental drop from
altitude without cracking the containment, they can design a hydrogen 'gas'tank
for a car that will take a hell of a lot more than the average wreck to ignite.

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