Idea for stopping the oil spill - just brainstorming: What about cutting a vertical slot in the

[anAustralianobserver]

pipe and inserting a hinged, folded-in-half circular disk - hinge at the top - that unfolds up and open and blocks the pipe?

ie 2 semicircles hinged together, the hinge attached to an axis that stays external to the pipe.

(I hope that ideas like mine are uninformed or redundant!)

[Mind_your_head]

1. The High pressures involved (with being so deep in the sea) and with the

high pressure of the flow/gusher (being so deep in the sea/under heavy rock/sea pressures) makes "common sense" ideas like yours not even possible for consideration ` but thanks for your concern/interest/suggestion....

[calimary]

2. Even so, we ALL need to be thinking, thinking, thinking, and coming up with something.

SOMETHING. ANYTHING. How do you know something like this wouldn't at least spark an inspiration in somebody else - who might come up with some intriguing and possibly doable approach?

We saw part of "Apollo 13" today - one of my husband's and my favorite movies. He even said - we should redirect and reassign NASA - "okay, you guys have the scientists and the experts who are used to working and troubleshooting in EXTREMELY alien environments, and you have stuff and machines and things you could tinker with and genius-level brain-power - the likes of which could actually get surface-dwelling air-breathers off the planet AND back, successfully, multiple times. Here's a shitload of money. GET TO WORK." We need to go to a war-footing, almost. Or as the Gene Kranz Flight Director character said: "let's work the problem, people."

If we have people all over the country thinking on this, even if it seems like they come up with some lame ideas or unworkable ideas, who's to say one of those might not trigger something in someone's mind - that could possibly get a solution started?

I say we need a national clarion call - "Gentlemen, and ladies, START YOUR BRAIN ENGINES!!!!!"

[anAustralianobserver]

6. Yes, thank you; but I guess part of brainstorming is being dumped on (?) too though hehe

The first thought I had was somehow using the oil pressure against itself.

I wonder how open or closed, and well coordinated, the expert panels working on it are. It could be good to include some non-expert ideas for lateral thinking.

I'll research what *is* being done and planned before starting any more threads though. It's a frightening thing to watch even from this far away; I woke up in the middle of the night worried about it recently.

(I'd like to watch Apollo 13 again, I've only seen it once. I've been enjoying watching the Shuttle missions recently:))

[anAustralianobserver]

3. It's the high pressures I had in mind re: the vertical cut, insertion and unfolding.

[RC]

11. High pressure on the sea floor doesn't mean very much.

It is the pressure differential between that pressure and the pressure in the well that is the concern.

My idea is why could they not just use that giant jaw thingy and use it to squeeze the pipe on top of the BOP shut?
While it may not fully stop the flow, it will slow it down quite a bit.

The problem is BP keeps trying to save the well, not solve the real problem - Stop an out of control well.

[Oregone]

4. How about a huge ass dome with large open sealable holes on top

Drop the dome, concrete the base. It will stay down. A few days after the cure, slide metal barrier horizontally on a track such that the holes are then covered.


Essentially, put something down that you engineer such that you can seal it easily by sliding something along a track over the holes. Leave holes open to let all pressure escape. They could be bigger than pipe. Once the thing is down there for good, seal it on up.

[boppers]

5. Already tried, sort of.

Turns out that the dome fills, is super-buoyant, and floats away. The concrete seems to address that, but now you have a huge, superbuoyant, concrete-surrounded dome that isn't fastened to rock.... which floats away.

[Oregone]

8. You missed the point about the open holes

The oil will spew out of it, just as it spews out of the current BOP. This allows enough time to fasten it down, prior to sealing it up. Why would it become buoyant? Just make sure everything is spewing straight on out

[anAustralianobserver]

9. A sliding track cover of some kind, interesting. Yes, the original dome sounds like it had

a relatively small opening at the top which got blocked up with ice crystals, so a bigger opening or set of openings makes sense to me :shrug:

I suppose there will be some successful short-term controls before the final stop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill#Attempts_to_stop_the_oil_leak

[CountAllVotes]

7. thank you for the idea

the more ideas the better. Other ideas may grow from this. :thumbsup:

:kick:

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. All ideas are appreciated.

At this point, we seem to be out of them. I know the Aussies recently plugged a similar leak using relief wells. Hopefully, someone will come up with something like your suggestion so we don't have to wait for that to play out.