- Submarine implosion: Understanding the catastrophic event
- The science behind the implosion: Comparing it to a crushed Coke can
- Structural weaknesses: The role of the carbon fiber hull in the disaster
A video of a Coca-Cola being instantaneously crushed by water pressure illustrates what likely occurred when the Titan submersible, which claimed five lives, was destroyed.
Thursday, authorities disclosed that the pressure chamber aboard OceanGate’s 22-foot vessel experienced a ‘catastrophic implosion,’ resulting in the tragic deaths of the men aboard.
A underwater wall weakness could have created a sudden pressure change that caused the implosion. According to experts, the ‘flawed’ carbon fiber hull may have contributed to the disaster.
According to experts, the crew and passengers would have been crushed in a fraction of a nanosecond, an event so quick that it would have ended before they realized what was happening and so violent that it is unlikely to have left more than a haze of human remains.
James Hambley, the Bearded Science Guy on YouTube, posted a similar Coke can implosion.
Hambley stated, “Filling the can with steam and then exposing it to cold water causes the steam to condense back into the water, leaving no gas particles inside the can to exert pressure outward.”
Thus, heated water vapour exerts far more pressure than cool liquid water.
Since the 19th century, the same principle has propelled the pumps of steam locomotives.
Creating this change in pressure inside the Coke can by condensing the hot, high-pressure vapor back into water droplets serves as a scale model of the pressure changes that occurred during the OceanGate submarine’s final harrowing moments.
Similar to the air surrounding the can, which remains unaltered, the powerful ocean pressures would have rushed in to fill the submersible’s vacuum, instantly crushing its wealthy occupants.
In the depths of the deep ocean, the pressure is so high that only organisms with specialized adaptations can survive.
The crew was more than 2 miles beneath the ocean’s surface, which would have generated more than 5,500 pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure, greater than that exerted by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Former US nuclear submarine officer Dave Corley told that the hull of an imploding sub moves inward at approximately 1,500mph (2,414km/h), so the time to complete collapse is just one millisecond.
Corley said compressed air’s friction burn ignited hydrocarbons and other combustible gases like oxygen during Titan’s collapse.
Corley also noted that because the unconscious response time of the human brain to external stimuli is approximately 25 milliseconds. It is unlikely that Titan’s passengers suffered or were entirely aware of their impending demise.
A former naval officer and professor at Florida International University, Aileen Maria Marty, told CNN: ‘Among the numerous ways we can depart, this is the least painful.’
‘Catastrophic implosion’ is a forensic engineering term for this type of structural failure.
A “catastrophic implosion” involves a brittle structure and is the reverse of a pressure-induced detonation.
Titan’s sub imploded and collapsed because to a rapid pressure change.
In general, if the pressure inside an object is lower than the pressure outside, the object will implode – unless the area of lower pressure is adequately protected, for example, with sturdy metal reinforcements.
According to engineering professor and co-director of Virginia Tech’s Centre for Marine Autonomy and Robotics Stefano Brizzolara, ‘Carbon reinforced plastic collapses catastrophically’ because the material is not as ductile as metal alloys.
Navy submarines use high-strength steel or titanium alloys, according to Brizzolara, which will bend and dent under intense pressure but are much less likely to split or shatter compared to the material OceanGate used to construct Titan’s hull.
According to Brizzolara, this carbon-reinforced plastic ”catastrophically” implodes, essentially shattering into small fragments.
Titanic director James Cameron, renowned for his deep-sea exploration operations, stated that Titan had ‘three potential failure points‘ and that its ‘Achilles heel’ was the carbon fiber hull.
