The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: Oceander on August 21, 2016, 06:18:36 pm

Title: Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean
Post by: Oceander on August 21, 2016, 06:18:36 pm

Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/flaming-fuel-water-creates-blue-whirl-burns-clean?tgt=nr)

Quote

Blue whirl
\Bloo werl\ n.

A swirling flame that appears in fuel floating on the surface of water and glows blue.

An unfortunate mix of electricity and bourbon has led to a new discovery. After lightning hit a Jim Beam warehouse in 2003, a nearby lake was set ablaze when the distilled spirit spilled into the water and ignited. Spiraling tornadoes of fire leapt from the surface. In a laboratory experiment inspired by the conflagration, a team of researchers produced a new, efficiently burning fire tornado, which they named a blue whirl.

To re-create the bourbon-fire conditions, the researchers, led by Elaine Oran of the University of Maryland in College Park, ignited liquid fuel floating on a bath of water. They surrounded the blaze with a cylindrical structure that funneled air into the flame to create a vortex with a height of about 60 centimeters. Eventually, the chaotic fire whirl calmed into a blue, cone-shaped flame just a few centimeters tall, the scientists report online August 4 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Firenadoes” are known to appear in wildfires, when swirling winds and flames combine to form a hellacious, rotating inferno. They burn more efficiently than typical fires, as the whipping winds mix in extra oxygen, which feeds the fire. But the blue whirl is even more efficient; its azure glow indicates complete combustion, which releases little soot, or uncombusted carbon, to the air.

The soot-free blur whirls could be a way of burning off oil spills on water without adding much pollution to the air, the researchers say, if they can find a way to control them in the wild.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ3eVdDFl18

Title: Re: Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean
Post by: Sanguine on August 22, 2016, 12:49:20 am

Thanks for posting this. 

Title: Re: Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean
Post by: Oceander on August 22, 2016, 01:13:08 am

Quote from: Sanguine on August 22, 2016, 12:49:20 am

Thanks for posting this. 

It's pretty sweet, isn't it?

Title: Re: Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean
Post by: Sanguine on August 22, 2016, 01:23:17 am

Quote from: Oceander on August 22, 2016, 01:13:08 am

It's pretty sweet, isn't it?

Yes it is!