Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Penelope_Grey
OOhhh a physics problem.
Well in reality as the guys have stated all three levels are going to be buggered in effect.
Water is just simply weight, the weight of the water is what creates pressure, a submarine or underwater structure creates a gap which water wants to fill, that is what causes pressure.
You won't get a constant slow leak... no, at first you will, yes, but as the seal on chamber 1 degrades under the pressure of the water forcing its way in, so the severity of the leak will increase. Pressure inside chamber 1 will actually increase further because the air will have nowhere to go as it fills up... except... the source of the leak, air will look to escape through there thus causing more strain, as the water level rises 2 things are happening.
1) the weight of the water will be slowly but surely forcing the seal to allow more and more through.
2) the air in chamber 1 will be compressing increasing strain on your seal weakening it further.
Eventually the seal will burst as it cannot handle the strain and a rapid flood will take place. the fact its 1lb is irrelevant... the end result is the same the only thing is the time it takes to happen.
Once chamber 1 floods the exact same things will happen to chamber 2 but quicker because it is lower down and thus water is heavier and thus more pressure on a seal. The seal on chamber 2 will give out the second quickest and then chamber 3 will give out the fastest.
The entire structure is as good as junk the second you lower it into the sea.
|
Nice one Pen
I had a chat to a guy that manufactures hyperbaric chambers and therefore knows just about all there is to know about pressure seals and he said almost exactly the same thing.
His only caveat was what pressure the "gas" was in the chambers. Even a small amount of air pressure (say at sea level pressure), will increase the amount of pressure needed by the water to make the next seal fail. So (hope I get this right), if the air pressure inside chambers 2 and 3 is ~14psi, then the pressure needs to be 999psi+14psi to make the seal fail.
He said though given that this wasn't specified in the problem description that it may not apply to the problem at hand. He also said that different gas mixtures can also have different effects but that the "gas" pressure is the key. If it was a vacuum then failure would occur.