Water Hammer During An Explosion
When an explosion happens in an enclosed space, water hammer can cause the walls of the container to deform. However, it can also impart momentum to the enclosure if it is free to move. An underwater explosion in the SL-1 nuclear reactor vessel caused the water to accelerate upwards through 2.5 feet (0.76 m) of air before it struck the vessel head at 160 feet per second (49 m/s) with a pressure of 10,000 pounds per square inch (69,000 kPa). This pressure wave caused the 26,000 pounds (12,000 kg) steel vessel to jump 9 feet 1 inch (2.77 m) into the air before it dropped into its prior location.
Read more about this topic: Water Hammer
Famous quotes containing the words water, hammer and/or explosion:
“A little water clears us of this deed.
How easy is it then!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Frau Stöhr ... began to talk about how fascinating it was to cough.... Sneezing was much the same thing. You kept on wanting to sneeze until you simply couldn’t stand it any longer; you looked as if you were tipsy; you drew a couple of breaths, then out it came, and you forgot everything else in the bliss of the sensation. Sometimes the explosion repeated itself two or three times. That was the sort of pleasure life gave you free of charge.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)