General > General Technical Chat
Berlin AquaDom explosion - what went wrong?
<< < (8/22) > >>
tom66:

--- Quote from: MrMobodies on December 17, 2022, 07:57:06 pm ---So it was -10c before the explosion but that is speculation.

--- End quote ---

This is speculation I think which originated from the police, but I am sure the lobby area was heated somewhat; to not do so would be greatly uncomfortable for anyone walking through.  However, it *is* conceivable, due to the current price of energy, that the heating was reduced.  So perhaps instead of 20C, with a 6C delta between the inside and outside, maybe the lobby was kept around 15C, and maybe colder overnight?  I am not sure what the law is in Germany, but there was something about public buildings being restricted for heating in winter due to gas shortages, maybe this applied to hotels too? 
Infraviolet:
Does anyone know if any footage of the moment of the burst was captured? I heard it happened in the early morning hours, but was there CCTV? if there is it might be very revealing as to how the burst happened, also it would be facinating to truly see what the event looked like as it happened.
tom66:
There is probably at least some CCTV, and assuming the DVR wasn't sitting right under the million litres of salt water, that footage will be analysed to see what happened.  Whether it was pointing at the tank was another matter, it seems unlikely you'd need to film that unless you were expecting catastrophic failure.  I think it's unlikely that such footage gets released unless the German state decides to conduct whatever their equivalent of a public enquiry is, given it's not a public building and no one is dead there is probably no scope for that.  It is probably a matter for the insurers and lawyers at this point, so unless someone leaks the footage we'll just have what their report says (or maybe the Reynolds company or another construction firm will end up in court - if so it's likely the footage would make an appearance.)
AndyBeez:

--- Quote from: Ian.M on December 17, 2022, 12:54:29 pm ---Wikipedia claims the water column was 14 m.  That's only about 1.4 atmospheres pressure

--- End quote ---
In fresh water the depth pressure at 14 meters is 19.85 psi, but in salt water this rises to 20.38psi. The added 0.53 psi equates to an extra 35cm in depth. A million litres of salt water weighs in at 1,023 tonne, 26 tonne more than the 997 tonne for just fresh water.

Ian.M:
Yes, and the density also varies with temperature, but the difference is even smaller.  It really doesn't matter as we don't know the fill depth accurately enough for a density difference of under 3% between fresh and sea water to be significant.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod