Monday, April 14, 2008

Best of Days Passed Hydro

PassHydro


Minimum Structural Hydro 1.2  1.2x 300 = 360 PSI, we went past 360. Design burst is more than 600 design SF 2.0 we can now start some actual testing, the vehicle will never be presurized with humans in the safety hazard zone. We will build a second vehicle with better weld prep and hydro that to a higher pressure.  for now we can do a lot of testing with tank pressure < 240 PSI.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's great news, do you have an optimistic estimate for how long until you've got the vanes moving?

Paul Breed said...

I hope to have the vanes done by Saturday. If we get all of that done we will try to do a full up static test on Sunday.

Anonymous said...

I'm really impressed by your recent speed of progress. Hope everything goes well for the weekend.

Anonymous said...

Is this a new set of hemispheres or did you manage to repair the tank that burst?

Anonymous said...

Nevermind about the repair question! I didn't read the previous post.

Anonymous said...

San Diego real estate may need more government bailouts. $1,000,000 condos next to exploding tanks.

Anonymous said...

Who would build overpriced housing next to a perfectly good rocket factory?

Paul Breed said...

We always are completely anal about getting ALL the air out of a hydro test specimen. We have now failed on the order of 10 tanks and the energy release has not been that dramatic. We also use a hand pumped hydro tester so you get good sweat feedback about how much energy you are storing in the system by how much you pump. A rigid tank pumps right up to pressure, a not so rigid tank takes some effort. You can see where the tank yields and you get some notice before it lets go. About as loud as dropping an empty pan on a concrete floor when it goes. The tank that pasted last night had a little bit of yield in the 320 PSI range, but it did not yield much for the last 50 PSI or so. No creaking groaning or bad noises. When we get around to having a 2nd vehicle I would not be surprised to have this hydro to 425 or 450.