I can plug leak, says NY genius

NY Post ^ | June 2, 2010 | KIERAN CROWLEY and JEREMY OLSHAN

[Scanian]

BP's engineers can't stop the gushing oil spill, but a young genius from Long Island says she found the solution in less time than it takes most people to finish a crossword puzzle.

Since the "top kill," "junk shot" and "top hat" techniques failed to end the environmental nightmare, Alia Sabur -- who started her engineering Ph.D. at age 14 -- is pushing for a more radical idea.

The Northport native, who started reading before she could walk and who at 18 broke a 300-year-old record to become the youngest-ever college professor, proposes surrounding a pipe with deflated automobile tires, inserting it into the leaking riser, and then inflating the wheels to form a seal.

She calls the plan the "seabed retread."

"It's not completely out there, considering that tires are used for everything and they're expected to withstand a lot," Sabur, 21, told The Post.

[NoExpectations]

Unbelievable.

[fieldmarshaldj]

She may be a genius, but she's guilty.

[Doogle]

...another idea from the “private”sector that will be rejected because Odumbo knows best....let’s see if Hollywood can fix it, much like CSI was suppose to find the DC sniper.

[Haiku Guy]

DEEPWATER HORIZON WAS AN INSIDE JOB

Gee, this Truther stuff is fun! I get to make inflammatory statements without a shred of evidence.

I can’t decide... Do I want to be a MIHOP or a LIHOP?

[driftdiver]

“The trick would be getting the pipe ‘n tires down into the well, wouldn’t it?”

I’ve heard the oil has 1400 psi behind it.

Might work but I’m curious as to the inflation is for, since tired generally don’t expand that much. Also, 1400 psi is more than enough to rip the tires off a core if you’re looking for an ‘airtight’ seal.

And then there’s the pressure of being down at 5000 feet and the 156 atmospheres of pressure.

[grey_whiskers]

Arrogant probable Obama voter.

Let's try her idea, with the proviso that if it fails, she bears all subsequent costs for the leak, OR, has to give up her doctorate and professorship.

(If BP should be punished for failure, why shouldn't she?)

Cheers!

[monocle]

I suggest cylinders containing liquid nitrogen be inserted in the well so that when opened the expanding nitrogen would act as a jet pushing the cylinder further down and would freeze the oil providing enough time to use the heavy mud and then the cement.

[grey_whiskers]

Barack's Problem

Cheers!

[The Cajun]

Can’t work. There is drill pipe stuck in the BOP and the BOP rams are partially closed, you ain’t going to jam anything solid down into it. The only way to kill the well is bottom kill from the relief wells. The only thing you can do now is try and contain the flowing oil better. I’m not a genius from New York, just someone who understands what happened and what is going on right now.

[Dusty Road]

Nothing more than a pesky little problem, like trying to stuff a string down a running water hose.

[muir_redwoods]

Does this idea break down to;

"Put some stuff in the well and hope it stops the leak"?

Genius? Really?

[ctdonath2]

Bingo.

People are forgetting this thing has a mile of water on top of it. Getting ANYTHING down there is hard.

There’s also this little problem of leak pressure - enough to still be blowing oil out at high rate despite having a mile of water pushing down on it. Try stuffing anything into a garden hose turned on full blast; this is a whole lot harder than that.

[Gen.Blather]

With the government involoved NOTHING innovative is possible. They have passed on the sea-vacuum that the Saudi’s successfully used. Also, I read a posting recently about how much the Obama cronies will make in oil-dispersants supplied by a Chicago comapny. If this keeps up they’ll all be very, very rich. Don’t expect a solution soon as rich cronies supply the money for campaigns.

[norwaypinesavage]

She needs to stick with teaching, not doing. There are just a few 'minor' details to deal with:
1) Tires don't hold air until they're on a wheel.
2) Wheels rust.
3) How do you get them in the well, past the partially sealed BOP with 10,000 psi oil gushing the other way?
4)How do you get the air in them, once they're in place (the local friendly BP service station doesn't fill tires)?
5) What's the coefficient of friction between the pipe and the tire?
6) in a three foot diameter pipe with 10,000 psi oil in it, the up force is about 10 million pounds (pi r squared p). What air pressure in the tire is required to resist this?

Like I said, she should stick with her class room.

[agere_contra]

Well said.

The relief wells are the whole answer. We just have to ameliorate the leak in the meantime, and ignore the 24/7 panic from the MSM.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

he pressures are much more than you say. At 5,300 feet if depth, the overbalance from the WELL is 1400 psi even AFTER it is allowed to relieve itself and flow freely. The actual bottom hole pressures exceed 10,000 psi if it is not allowed to flow.

We are dealing with an extremely complex law of physics here. This so called “genius” is just another arrogant idiot who think that what ever they think of is the ONLY answer.

She needs to work in the Petroleum Engineering world for a while and learn something before she comes off with such stupid and ignorant “solutions”.

[Izzy Dunne]

proposes surrounding a pipe with deflated automobile tires, inserting it into the leaking riser, and then inflating the wheels to form a seal.

i hope this is just bad writing and not the real words of this "genius".

A auto "tire" does not appreciably change size when you let the air out, unless your car or something is resting on it.

Think about it - you've seen tires lying around - they're just as big off the wheel as they are on it!

And "inflating the wheel" is just too stupid to believe.

The idea could only make a modicum of sense if they were talking about inflating a TUBE, not a tire and not a wheel.

But even that is silly given that the tube inside pressure is 30-40 PSI, and the oil pressure is 10000 PSI.

I won't mention the fact that a slick rubber surface against an even slicker oily pipe is going to have a hard time holding on.

It might make sense if there was an inflatable thing capable of withstanding the pressures, and grabbing onto the pipe surface.

But auto tires?

Then, I guess if you're as dumb as this reporter, such an idea appears as "genius".

[DeaconRed]

"Can’t work."

Agree she didn't take into account the pressure at that depth. At 5,000+ feet it is so great a manned submarine can't go that deep.

However there is a solution out there probably real simple. This is a true story: Years ago back when the interstates were being built they ran into a problem on I-65 in Alabama. They built an underpass too low for big trucks. A truck became stuck under one and they got engineers from all over the country to figure out how to get the truck out as cheap as possible. They worked for days and nothing worked. A kid on a bicycle came by and suggested they lower the air pressure in the trucks tires. They ran the kid off and said that wouldn't work. two days later they lowered the air pressure and moved the truck. . . .

[jonascord]

I wondered about that. Yesterday, did they cut off the pipe string ABOVE the BOP? If so, the damaged BOP is still there, restricting access to the well head. How deep in the sea floor is the BOP before you can get to the drill pipe?