Note that if SpaceX wants a sacrificial coating, they have PICA-X and the sintered silicon tiles. On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 3:31 PM Rodney W. Grimes via Starlink < starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 1:41?PM Rodney W. Grimes > > wrote: > > > > > > > As always I enjoy the flood of information we get on this list! > > > > > > > > still, so far, my research on a nitrogen deluge system (instead of > > > > water) has come up empty for me, except as a fire suppressant. So > it?s > > > > either crazy or brilliant. Or both! I really liked the idea of > > > > something cooler that was a natural byproduct of the LOX process... > > > > > > I dont think cooler does much, isnt it the "energy of vaporization" > > > that is actually doing all the "work" in this type of system? > > > > > > H2O is 40.7 kJ/mol and LN2 is 5.6 kJ/mol so you would > > > need ~7 times as much LN2 to do the same work. > > > > Now that! was the kind of numbers I was looking for! > > :-) > > > > > Still, water has to come from somewhere, and be stored. I will keep > > thinking about it. I like that they seem to think that a water cooled > > steel plate will suffice. > > Water is a pretty ubundant resource... > > Now that water cooled steel plate, if you treat it like a sacrificial > anode in a water heater, ie you expect it to be erroded over time it > could get interesting. Energy of vaporization of steel well... lets > call it iron (Fe) is 340kJ/mol. Large thick plates are rather easy > to manufacture, and I am sure they could design the ficturing such > that the blast held them in place against a concrete foundation. > > Also there is probably lots of good research on keeping water > in contact with steel at high temperatures and volumes, think > Boiling Water Reactor! Containing the flying molten slag would > be a concern I suspect though. > > > > > > And the reason N2 is used as a fire suppressant is again not > > > because of temperature, but because it displaces the O2 and > > > suffocates the fire. N2 is also easier on our ozone layer > > > than the prior used Halon. Finally, this is usually > > > compressed N2 gas, not LN2. > > > > > > -- > > > Rod Grimes > rgrimes@freebsd.org > > > > > > -- > > AMA March 31: > https://www.broadband.io/c/broadband-grant-events/dave-taht > > Dave T?ht CEO, TekLibre, LLC > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Starlink mailing list > Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink > -- Bruce Perens K6BP