Titan sub: Coke can shows how ‘implosion’ may have happened

A video of a Coca-Cola being instantly crushed by water pressure gives an idea of ​​what likely happened to the destroyed Titan sub that claimed five lives.

The pressure chamber aboard OceanGate’s 22-ft vessel suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” authorities revealed Thursday, and the men on board tragically perished.

The implosion is believed to have been caused by a sudden change from low to high pressure in the submarine, possibly caused by a defect in the submarine’s walls.

Experts say the crew and passengers would have been crushed in a fraction of a millisecond, an event that would have passed so quickly before they realized what was happening and so violent that it is unlikely to leave anything but a fog of human remains .

a video posted by James Hambley, a YouTuber known as Barded Science Guy, demonstrates a similar implosion with a Coke can.

“By filling the can with steam and then exposing that steam to cold water, it condenses back into water, leaving no gas particles on the inside of the can to exert pressure outward,” Hambley said.

In other words, the high energy of heated water vapor exerts a much higher pressure on the environment in the can’s steaming air than an equal amount of cool liquid water.

It is the same principle that has driven the pumps of steam locomotives since the 19th century.

Creating this pressure change in the Coke can, cooling the hot high-pressure steam into cold droplets of water, acts like a scale model of the pressure changes that took place during the OceanGate submarine’s final brutal moments.

Like the air around the can, which remains unchanged, the powerful ocean pressure would have rushed in to fill the vacuum of the submarine’s new lower pressure and crush the wealthy occupants in an instant.

In the depths of the deep ocean, the pressure increases to such an extent that only specially adapted organisms can survive.

The crew was more than 2 miles below the ocean’s surface, which would have generated more than 5,500 pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure, more than the pressure exerted by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

A ‘catastrophic implosion’ is a violent or dramatic implosion event involving a brittle structure – the opposite of an explosion due to pressure changes.

In the case of Titan, the sudden change from relatively low pressure in the submarine to incredibly high pressure caused the sudden and catastrophic implosion and structural crushing.

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 by strong metal reinforcements.

“Carbon-reinforced plastic,” says engineering professor Stefano Brizzolara, the co-director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics, “collapses ‘catastrophically’ because the material is not as ductile as metal alloys.”

Naval submarines use high-strength steel or titanium alloys, Brizzolara told DailyMail.com, which will bend and dent under intense pressure, but are much less likely to crack or shatter — unlike the material OceanGate used to build Titan’s hull.

This carbon-reinforced plastic, Brizzolara said, “implodes catastrophically” and literally breaks into pieces and small fragments.’

It is thought that Titan suddenly lost this protection, possibly due to a defect in its structure that suddenly magnified, perhaps caused by a collision with another underwater object.

“It probably would have been faster and even more extreme than the can in the video,” Hambley said.

“The pressure outside the submarine pushing in was about 400 times the pressure inside the submarine pushing out.

“With the can in the video, it’s probably about 5-10 times the pressure pushing in than out.”

The Titan submarine, operated by the American company OceanGate, began its dive to Titanic on Sunday morning, but all contact with the mothership was lost shortly afterwards.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the devastating news Thursday that robotic search engines had found a “debris field” near the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean.

This debris — including Titan’s tail, nose cone and inner pressure hull — was found about 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the bow of the famed Titanic.

Aboard the ship was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61; French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, 77; British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 41; and his son Suleman, who was just 19.

Tickets for the expedition cost up to $250,000 (£195,000) per person.

Authorities concluded that the implosion had occurred due to the small size of the fragments, detected by the underwater robotic equipment.

“The debris field of multiple small parts shows the catastrophic and rapid failure of the submarine which imploded extremely quickly,” said Dr Jasper Graham-Jones, Associate Professor of Mechanical & Marine Engineering at the University of Plymouth.

At this time, the cause of the catastrophic implosion is unclear, although it could have been caused by a defect in the submarine that built up over time.

Underwater robots will remain at the site of the debris field in an attempt to gather more information that could reveal the cause.

“This craft took 25 runs to the Titanic and back to the surface,” said Dr Graham-Jones. “Each return flight caused cracks in the pressure bulkheads.

“This may be small and undetectable at first, but soon becomes critical and produces rapid and uncontrollable growth.

As for what’s happening Dr. Dale Molé, former director of submarine medicine and radiation health for the US Navy, said the death would have been quick and painless.

The five men would have died almost instantly due to the extraordinary forces exerted by the ocean at depth, which is under enormous pressure.

“It would have been so sudden that they didn’t even know there was a problem or what had happened to them,” Molé said.

“It’s like you’re here for a minute, and then the switch turns off. One millisecond you’re alive and the next millisecond you’re dead.’