Railroad Tank Implosion

Nope, the pressure was maximum arround 1000 hPa, as this max you can achieve outside ( vaccum to normal every day air pressure ).
They forgot to ventilate the tank when letting the liquid out of it so the normal athmpsphere pressure crushed the tank.

yup real time you can tell by the bouncing and the settling afterwards

It looks like the trick people do with sealed cans filled with steam then quickly cooled where the air pressure squishes the can. But on a much larger scale.

Yeah, that's definitely real time. My chem teacher used to use a vacuum for many things, this included. He loved to "implode" things with a vacuum, and boil water at room temperature.

Incredible! Awesome post.

That would scare the crap out of me. Even if I knew it was going to happen.

I wonder if the Mythbusters would test this - i.e. what kind of process/substance could make this happen.

If Mythbusters tested this, it would have to *ex*plode rather than *im*plode!

It loked like an invisible fist crushed it like a soda can.

>I wonder if the Mythbusters would test this - i.e. what kind of process/substance could make this happen.

Doesn't take much.

Take a metal container (paint thinner container, used up, rinsed out outside, clean), pour some water in it, boil it on a stove, once it's steaming... screw the cap back on. Kill the heat. Watch it implode.

I agree with JamesM. The cooling of the hot sealed wagon, sealed also its fate.

Try that (bad video quality but you get the gist of it) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbakZL62d6U

Oddly enough this reminds me of a Simpsons quote: Implosion, I thought you said explosion?!

I'm so easily amused these days. And I agree with LJames...it does look like a huge fist just punched it!

It looks like real time. But how? Cool vid

As aphilly said, the tank car was crushed by the atmospheric pressure outside the car. At sea level, standard atmospheric pressure is about 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch). When you consider how many square inches there are on a tanker car it becomes obvious that the atmospheric pressure is enormous. An average tanker car is a cylinder about 10' in diameter by 80' long. That roughly translates to a surface area of around 400,000 square inches. The total atmospheric pressure on a tanker car would therefore be around 6 million pounds.

To withstand that kind of pressure, a tanker car would need to be built like a submarine with massive steel walls and internal bulwarks. Of course they are not, which is why they must be vented when being pumped dry of liquid so the atmospheric pressure inside and outside the car remains equalized.

By the way, anyone can demonstrate this same principle in their own kitchen. Take an empty aluminum soda can, pour a few spoonfuls of water into it and heat it on the stove until the water is boiling. Then use a pair of salad tongs to take the can, turn it upside down and insert it into a bowl of ice water. The aluminum can will instantly crush with a satisfying crunch.

Very well explained Kent. Thanks :)

I wonder if Klaus the lift truck driver had anything to do with this.

Kent gave a nice explanation, but I'll pick a small nit. The atmospheric PRESSURE on the tanker is ~14.7 psi, not 6 million pounds. That 6 million pounds is FORCE, rather than pressure. Force = Pressure x Area. Small pressure x big area = a lot of force and it's force that squishes it.

Obviously Kent knows the distinction between pressure and force, but it's like nails on a blackboard (or people saying "less" when they mean "fewer") when I hear them interchanged.

either way you look at it, that is amazing. i actually tested bill nye's soda can test...it worked.

If you really want to cringe, read the YouTube comments - there's some seriously ill-informed people out there.

Or LiveLeak. Or whatever!

LJames-

I'm with you. It was obviously an invisible fist, for there's no force in nature that could wreck that kind of havoc. We must find the invisible fist, befriend it, and make it protect us from the far unfriendlier invisible foot, and the deadly invisible stream of urine.
:)
:)
:)

Alannah Full Ack. Incredible comments on YoutTube.

By the way, thats an railroad tanker from Eva Eisenbahn Verkehrsgesellschaft AG ( railroad traffic corporation ) from Germany. It is used to transport crude and heavy fuel oil from northern german oilfields and refineries.

No heat >50°C involved here.

Allanah,

Seriously funny.

In order for this to happen as described, the liquid would have to be pumped out under significant pressure, no? If you simply opened up the bottom of the tank to let the liquid out, it wouldn't implode even if it wasn't vented -- the liquid would stop flowing if air couldn't get in to take its place.

(@Kent, Nice explanation, thanks -- but do you mean you mean bulkhead rather than bulwark? A bulwark is a defensive wall, like a fortification; a bulkhead is a partition, usually inside a boat or submarine, that strengthens it and prevents leaks or fires from spreading.)

There is a voice that says, in german, Seven hundred sixty (760). Must be hPa.

its fake, someone just bought their first editer and posted it on youtube.

No, Eric. This is not a fake. The experiment was done intentionally to demonstrate to railroad employees the ease at which vacumn can implode a tank car.

The german "760" was an announcement of the actual vacumn measured, as opposed to the outside pressure. That increment equates to just over 14.5 negative pounds of pressure (or vacumn). In german, after saying "760" the speaker also says' "the winner is (and a german name)". A longer version of that video shows many company employees standing behind a safety barrier, watching the demonstration.

The demonstration was captured on video for future training purposes. Obviously, something like this is going to make it to YouTube quickly.

It's no fake.

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