Wierd Crap I Have To Worry About

Somebody Slapped Me Back To Thermodynamics Class...


If you're looking for pithy writing, humor, or a good rant this morning I'm sorry to report that thus far it ain't happened here.

You see, my brain has been attempting to get itself wrapped around a phenomena called a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) and as a result I'm wrestling with things like this equation:

Energy in Compressed Gas = ((Psub 1-Psub 0) x 2 x Vsub 1)/(Lambda sub 1 - 1)

Where: Psub 1 = absolute pressure of gas in question (in my problem it's steam)
Psub 0 = absolute pressure of ambient air
Vsub 1 = Volume of Pressure Vessel
Lambda sub 1 = ratio of specific heats of gas in system

Problem is--everything is in Metric and I'm a little rusty in my Newtons and Pascals and Joules--and for some reason I seem to keep coming up with numbers that are several orders of magnitude off from what I would need to make a prediction that something made out of stainless steel would explode.

I took five quarters of Calculus and a quarter of differential equations about 29 years ago, but today finds me wrestling with even the simplest thermodynamic concepts which in this case should be able to be solved by an EIGHTH GRADE ALGEBRA STUDENT...

SO I'M PISSED that my brain's having problems with this mental gymnastics.

I guess I'll take a little nap and come back at it fresh in the morning and see where my efforts get me.

dang it...