Quote:
Originally Posted by MKSixer
I thought as much myself, but here are the maths...
The initial plume/fireball seemed about 10 meter tall?
Gasoline vapour density is about 3.9 kg/m3.
Combining these two with the experimental approximate scaling law, we get:
Z = 12.73 m * (V / 1 m3)^ (1/3)
=>
V = 1 m * (Z / 12.73 m)^3 ~ 0.5 m3 ~ 1.95 kg fuel ~ 2 kg
The math seems to add about up. With 110 kg, the plume due to the initial fireball would have been about four times larger in height.
We will never know until the investigation is done, my friend. I'm just glad that Romain "The Phoenix" Grojean is safe.
Cheers-mk
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You have the right equation, but keep in mind that the mass used in the calc is the mass of fuel vapor. So while there may have been 2kg worth of fuel vapor for combustion in the fireball, the rest of the fuel would still be liquid at the moment of impact. So there very well may have been a rupture of the fuel cell. But this is all just back of the napkin stuff and as you say, we'll know when the investigation is done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium
Positive . But by the displacement (transport) of the spray through the air . The spray mixture picked up too much air .
It's for sure , they stood too far away from the fire !
By this , the air in the mixture was feeding the flames ...
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I doubt it. The spray from a handheld extinguisher is fairly puny. The fire will entrain much more air on its own. They were definitely too far away at first, but those guys with the extinguishers didn't appear to be wearing proper face masks/SCBA, and it must have been crazy hot getting towards that fire. So I can't blame them for starting further back and working their way closer. Major props to the medical car guys for getting right in there and helping Grosjean over the fence.