Eh, I'm not sure about that. Actual airflow is the same as whatever the small fan can move. The Venturi effect would just make the higher velocity airflow through the small fan channel into a lower velocity flow through the larger (main part) channel (it's basically a complicated diffusor). The actual rate of flow is the same. You probably actually lose a fair amount of efficiency because of all the ducting and diversion. I would also guess that small, high-speed fans aren't as efficient as larger low speed fans for the same airflow.

That isn't to say it isn't a cool design, though. But yeah, for just getting the job done, a box fan is probably more efficient and effective.

Threw me for a minute when he described the venturi effect as effecting fluids like gas...

(here in Aus we refer to it as petrol or fuel, gas is LNG or any other substance that is, ya know, a gas)

LOL! Oh, come on, JD. Stupiest video ever? EVER? Personally, I enjoyed the video. Love thinking about stuff like this hearing what others think up. This is a pretty horrible disaster, and I have no doubt there are millions and millions of armchair engineers (and real engineers) around the world who have both good and not-so-good ideas on how to solve it. I wouldn't diss or belittle any of them their noble, well-meaning, and often frustrated efforts and ideas. That said, I wonder if the benefits of Venturi effect (lower pressure of increasing fluid flow) when inserting the dreidel outweigh the adverse effect of Pascal (fluid at rest acting on the much larger surface area of the cone) when the dreidel is fully inserted. Not an expert, just thinking out loud.

Idiots? Basic concepts of physic? Really? REALLY?

You're right the sea floor isn't like rock, but it's not like they just jammed a pipe a few feet into the seabed and called her good. That well is likely many thousands of feet below the seafloor (lined with pipe the whole way). While it undoubtedly passes through layers of porous rock, that oil has remained where it is for millions of years under impermeable (to the oil) rock. If it wasn't impermeable, the oil wouldn't be there.

I have no idea what the pressure of the oil is, but, as you said in your comment, it's the differential pressure that matters. The BOP would not explode. No effin' way. It's not the same as Popeye putting his finger in Bluto's gun barrel and the barrel blows up like a balloon 'til it explodes in poor Bluto's face. Pascal's Law just doesn't work that way. And although you used it as an example, rather than an estimate of well pressure, 400 PSI ain't shit. If you were bemoaning the total pressure on the inside of a pipe with relatively large surface area, be rest-assured that people smarter than us long ago figured out appropriate pipewall thickness/diameter ratios for anticipated operating pressures for a given material (with slide-rules and shit). The current devastation notwithstanding, imho, it's not due to a pipe rupturing (at the seafloor). 5000' of oil head is lighter than 5000' feet of water head, so the pressure difference of a cap at the BOP would be even lower. I'm on my second glass of Cuvee, so I may have that exactly backwards. W/E.

The cement thingy... LOL! I hope you were just being smarmy, because unless you're using super Star Trek Horta cement or something, the only way I can think of to stop the flow after cutting off the BOP (short of relief wells) is to nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.


>> ^joedirt:

Stupidest video I've ever seen on the sift.
Do you idiots have any basic concepts of physics? Seriously, 21" pipe, 66 in^2, 5000 psi (maybe 400psi relative to water pressure). First of all, the sea floor there isn't like rock, secondly the BOP would explode if they plugged the leak (and is probably already leaking), thirdly, the sink a ship on it is better solution then some idiot sitting around with a hose and sticking his thumb in it to come up with ideas.
If they thought the oil wouldn't leak out from somewhere else, they would just cut off the BOP and get a giant bag and start pumping down cement down to cover the sea floor around the well head.