- #1
Michael1234513423643
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So I'm going to try to keep this as brief as possible, but I have a somewhat advanced physics question that my nuclear background hasn't prepared me for and I need an argument settled at work.
Say you have a 30 ft deep pool and you need to protect the contents, which comprise the bottom ~10 ft. The risk is steel I beams falling and puncturing the pool liner (steel, say it's 1/4") or damaging the contents.
The physics for a beam falling through water aren't beyond me, and I've reached the conclusion that an I beam, falling vertically, would likely puncture the pool liner as the beam wouldn't be slowed enough by water resistance to lessen the impact to acceptable levels. My question is, and it's a bit out there, what if the pool were filled with rubber (or some similar, more-dense-than-water material) spheres? I don't know how to approach the physics of the interactions between the I beam and the water, the I beam and the spheres, the spheres and the water, and the spheres with those surrounding them.
If you are willing to look into this question, I'll provide a few basic assumptions:
Standard pressure, temperature, etc.
Say the pool is a 20' x 60' rectangle, and as said earlier, 30' deep
Balls are arranged uniformly
I'm not sure what type of material would be best, so just assume a density of 1.2 (basically just that the spheres do not float)
The argument is whether filling the pool with these spheres would reduce or prevent the impact of the beam falling as a spear (completely vertical, I assume that is worst-case) to either an acceptable level (no puncture of liner) or stop it completely (beam becomes suspended somewhere in the mass of spheres). I'm hoping someone dramatically more familiar with dynamics than I am reads this and feels intrigued enough to take the time to help out. Thanks in advance, and if you need any other assumptions feel free to either make them yourself or ask and I'll try my best to respond promptly.
Say you have a 30 ft deep pool and you need to protect the contents, which comprise the bottom ~10 ft. The risk is steel I beams falling and puncturing the pool liner (steel, say it's 1/4") or damaging the contents.
The physics for a beam falling through water aren't beyond me, and I've reached the conclusion that an I beam, falling vertically, would likely puncture the pool liner as the beam wouldn't be slowed enough by water resistance to lessen the impact to acceptable levels. My question is, and it's a bit out there, what if the pool were filled with rubber (or some similar, more-dense-than-water material) spheres? I don't know how to approach the physics of the interactions between the I beam and the water, the I beam and the spheres, the spheres and the water, and the spheres with those surrounding them.
If you are willing to look into this question, I'll provide a few basic assumptions:
Standard pressure, temperature, etc.
Say the pool is a 20' x 60' rectangle, and as said earlier, 30' deep
Balls are arranged uniformly
I'm not sure what type of material would be best, so just assume a density of 1.2 (basically just that the spheres do not float)
The argument is whether filling the pool with these spheres would reduce or prevent the impact of the beam falling as a spear (completely vertical, I assume that is worst-case) to either an acceptable level (no puncture of liner) or stop it completely (beam becomes suspended somewhere in the mass of spheres). I'm hoping someone dramatically more familiar with dynamics than I am reads this and feels intrigued enough to take the time to help out. Thanks in advance, and if you need any other assumptions feel free to either make them yourself or ask and I'll try my best to respond promptly.