Why can't they just stuff some nerf balls into those leaks?

Duer 157099

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Fri May-28-10 02:41 AM
Original message

Why can't they just stuff some nerf balls into those leaks?

I mean the ones on the BOP. Get that ROV arm to squish a small nerf ball up and push it into one of the holes and just keep doing this until all the holes get plugged up since the balls will expand after they are inserted.

I know the effluent is coming out at great pressure, but so all you need is to make sure the ROV arm can exceed that pressure, enough to push the ball into the holes.

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BootinUp

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Fri May-28-10 03:31 AM
Response to Original message

1. to plug the hole(s)

the object must be able to withstand the pressures without deforming or being torn into smaller pieces. Relatively hard objects would be needed to take the pressure that the well is putting out. For example nylon plastic which is an engineering grade of plastic would disintegrate and deform pretty quickly at 13000 psi. The objects they want to junk shot in there would have the same problem really. I don't think its going to work. Materials softer than nylon will never work. Reinforced engineering plastics could withstand the pressure for a while anyways. For example a glass fiber reinforced nylon could withstand forces over 20000 psi.

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stray cat

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Fri May-28-10 07:41 AM
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2. ? I'm assuming this is a joke

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Statistical

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Fri May-28-10 07:48 AM
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3. Your kidding right?

the flow is under tens of thousands of psi. To put it into perspective a firehose is "only" 300 to 500 psi. Try forcing a nerfball into a firehose while it is on.

Now imagine this flow has pressure 20x to 50x higher.

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Thu May 09th 2024, 05:42 AM
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