Engineering question

[OldRedFord]

Without going political...

How would you stop the oil coming out of that well down there in the gulf if you were in charge?

My idea...

Drill into the pipe and slip a smaller diameter tube down the well, fill the gap between the two to seal it up, and then hook whatever you want to the smaller pipe running into the ground? Maybe seal the gap between the two with a robotic, submersible welder?

[1982 flareside]

Big dome over it.

[fordman]

that is a very good idea. kind of liek relining a old brick chimney. my first thought. but i dont know if it could be done was just to weld a pipe on to it to catch more oil than was getting away right now. or maybe they could weld a patch over it. shutting off the flow must not be a good plan or they may have done that already. or maybe they cant. i dont know.

[Thunderfoot]

From what I caught on the news tonight was that the pressure on the line is so great that they said that if the pipe wasn't sealed at the bottom of it, it could (would probably) bust at the pipe joints and leak around the pipe that way...
They tried the dome thing but the temp of the water down there and the flow of natural gas with the oil the pipe froze it up...

I think maybe they should have not put the fire out, or at least been putting a capture around it and collecting it sooner/closer to the start - not let it (so much) get out of the area...

Maybe a BIGGER pipe over the outside of that one (I think they are talking about this now but have to cut away the damaged section which for a short time will make the leak worse)

It's a pretty bad deal for all of us, some much more then others...

[averagef250]

I would start by building a large football field sized boyant framework directly overhead of the leak that was suspended by cables anchored to the sea floor just below the water's surface at low tide. Above this framework I would attach an accordian-like rubber bellows that connected this sub-surface framework to a similiar framework floating on the surface. This is just to compensate for tides. There would be a third, larger framework on the sea floor encompassing the leaking well head.

Then I would have huge plastic or composite sheets manufactured that were say, 20-40 feet wide and a mile long hopefully somewhat lightweight and thin. The long sides of these sheets would have zippers on them to allow them to be connected to one another. These long sheets would be suspended off the upper frameworks and connected to the sea floor frameworks and "zipped" together to form a continous tube of sorts from the ocean floor to the surface.

All the spilling oil would then come to the surface in one place and could be managed effectively. Ocean currents may require a more substantial framework be built to support the plastic/composite sheeting tube, but who knows.

That's my idea.

[quantumleap]

on a less serious note...i hear them Brawney paper towels soak up pretty well no?

[Ranchero50]

TI guess they're doing about the best thing they can right now. They are pumping the dense mud (think modelling clay on steroids) back into the riser at the base of the BOP. The mud is supposed to gum up the oil, slow it down and finally push back down the well. You'd think the gushing oil would just wash it away but I think they are pushing some incredible pressures and rates. They used the mud in the beginning when they drilled the well as a lubricant and to carry the drillings out of the well. It's expensive so BP wanted it back to use at the next site so they pumped seawater into the well riser to displace the oil instead of the super dense mud. Somehwere in there they were cementing the casing to the riser as well (I honestly don't understand how they do it all, but have been reading some good stuff since this started). There was natural gas silicates (ice crystals they write about) inside the pipes and the heat from the concrete's chemical reaction caused the ice to change back to gas. The gas formed bubbles and started displacing the mud and sea water in the riser. Because of the pressures involved once the bubble got closer to the seabottom it became huge turned into pretty much an explosion, overpressuring the BOP, damaging it. On the surface the mud was getting displaced back into the mud room which I think was between the control room and the crew area. The drill workers noticed it but had to wait for orders to fire the BOP. Before they could the well ran away, the natural gas blew into the mud room, went out the vents and the diesel generators ran away and exploded (4 of them I think), killing the electrical and hydraulic pressure to close the BOP. Those are the guys that died, trying to stop the dissaster. The survivers reported crawling through the mud in the crew area. While they were doing the concrete work the trans ocean guys are arguing with the BP man saying bad stuff was going on in the well (from the pressure reports) and the BP man said recover the mud. The TO guy said I hope the BOP does it's job...

I think they sould have done the junk shot to slow the leaks at the base of the BOP before pumping the mud in. BTW, they stopped recovering the oil with the hose in the riser so they can do the mud work.

Jamie

[eggman918]

Nuke depth charge,off the shelf part. They tested many without any ecological problems .
At that depth it would fuse the seafloor in to glass and seal leak.

[Thunderfoot]

bp presentation http://bp.concerts.com/gom/kentwells_update24052010.htm

[rjewkes]

And how come they can't get at the sea floor oil deposits from the shore? then all the under water pipes would be underground and a spill would be on the surface of an oil field.

[OldRedFord]

And how come they can't get at the sea floor oil deposits from the shore? then all the under water pipes would be underground and a spill would be on the surface of an oil field.

You mean like drilling at a angle from the shore all the way to the oil?

This was pretty interesting, specially the bit about the company involved.

http://www.wimp.com/oilspills/

[fordman]

angle drilling would probably be cost prohibitive.

[papabug71]

Nuke depth charge,off the shelf part. They tested many without any ecological problems .
At that depth it would fuse the seafloor in to glass and seal leak.

You know, to alot of people that would sound crazy, but I thought the same thing.

I think the only way they're gonna get it to stop is to implode it. It's what I like to call the all or nothing option. It's either gonna work like a charm or its gonna make things a hell of a lot worse than it is.

2012 is just around the corner

[fordman]

its funny. if the oil is floatign on top of the water why not suck it up with pumps and seperate it from the water in a machine or soemthing. until they can get the leak fixed. what made me think of this just now was ai had another enigne almost runined because the cover blew off the motor and got water in it. i opened the oil pan drain and nothing but water came out for a minute or so and then oil. of course i had to drain the cyilders too. i then pour oil down the carb and turned the enigne over for half an hour with a socket and ratchet.

[fitzwell]

Nuke depth charge,off the shelf part. They tested many without any ecological problems .
At that depth it would fuse the seafloor in to glass and seal leak.

with the CEO of B.P. holding said device.