I have a wild idea for fighting forest fires. It is probably
impractical for many reasons, but I want to investigate some of them.
The idea is this: A large explosion (probably have to be a nuke) is
set off under water near the wide end of what is essentially a large funnel, and the shock of the explosion sends a stream of water onto the fire.
What is the upper limit on the speed of which water can be moved
through a pipe? Is it the speed of sound in water (1.48 km/ sec)?
Can a shock wave going through water be made to impell the water through a pipe?
Can a stream of water coming out of a pipe be made to stay in a
“stream”, or will it disintigrate into a spray before it gets too far
out of the pipe?
In what I propose, I don’t imagine that the stream could stay intact for all of its arc, and that is probably a good thing. It might freeze as it goes through the upper parts of the atmosphere, but would melt and disperse coming back down into the atmosphere.
I doubt Lake Superior would miss a couple of million cubic feet of
water, and anyway if you don’t mind salt water there would be an
unlimited amount.
As I said, I know there are more issues to deal with (fallout,
environmentalist objections), but I would prefer to start discussing the hydraulics.
I can’t imagine you’d be able to manufacture a funnel or pipe strong enough to withstand the force of the water, particularly as you are talking about driving it all that way with a single ‘push’.
The question is not unlike the one that we had a while back about whether a missile silo cover could be put into orbit by an explosion.
Well, when you consider forest fires of the magnitude needing such suppression occur in remote areas far from bodies of water you envision, I often we currently lack the technology.
Then again, if such a system were possible, how do you expect to aim the beast? As much as the present-day (and temporarily absent) inhabitants of Show Low, Arizona, would ppreciate your efforts right now, I don’t think they would want to return to town quenched by your cannon, only to find their town washed away …
Water can be made to stay in a stream with some fairly simple bits of tube and screen. You can see devices that create laminar flow in some fountains.
Water has a lot of mass and thus momentum, and underwater explosions are funky, especially high explosive ones. The shockwave would probably just destroy the cone without pushing any significant amount of water out of it.
Wouldn’t a nuke(or similarly huge explosions) be ultimately more dangerous and damaging than the very fire you’re trying to fight? Especially if you plan to set it off by Lake Superior. Think about all the damage done to the locale area, not to mention fall out, damage to the ecology of the Lake, and so forth.
