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OK, enough of the love-fest :)!! Glad everyone agrees on the importance
of the site and that it should be used for it’s intended purpose. I acually have a technical question: I am planning to test some quartz glass
I would like to use for portals. I
have access to a diver decompression chamber and can take the test assembly to
many hundreds of feet in depth. I
need to know from some of you M,E.’s if I build a box to mount the windows on
and make it small enough to go into the decomp chamber (probably 18 inches
square), would that be sufficient to duplicating the inside and outside
pressures of a larger vessel (like the sub)? I realize that the smaller test box would have a much
greater crush strength than a larger vessel, however, I simply want to know if
the glass will withstand the pressure / temperature changes and expect to build
the box overly strong so that there is nearly no movement or reaction on it’s
part. I will have at least two
windows of varying thickness mounted on the test box with a pressure gauge on
the inside and visible through the window to make sure the inside is still at
ambient pressure when the chamber is ramping up. The reason I want to do this is that I am familiar with this
glass in some high temperature scientific furnace applications and I know it is
very resistant to scratching, easy to clean, greatly resists warping / bending
and can withstand sudden changes in temperature (will not crack). I suspect that a 8” x ½” thick portal
made from this glass would withstand some serious pressures. Worst case depth I’m targeting
(emergency only) would be 300 feet.
Normal useful depth would be 125 feet. I am hoping it will easily withstand pressures at a depth of
750 feet. As far as thermal
stresses, outside of the decomp chamber, I am planning to place a electric
heater inside the test box and heat the entire assembly to about 200 degrees
F. After letting it “soak” at that
temperature for at least 30 minutes, I will hose it down with ice-cold water,
simply to ensure that there is no chance for cracking. That should more than ensure that a hot
sub sitting in the sun for many days will not have the portals crack when it is
launched into cold water. Sealing
material will be Buna-N O-rings. Suggestions? Comments? Thanks, as always, for your input. Cliff |