Quote:
Originally Posted by jgraber
Thanks for the calculation examples.
On a "storm surge", the ocean surface is fluid. The Regolith is a solid.
If there were an airsource under the regolith, it might be a problem.
If the a cardboard box lists 40psi bursting strength, I don't think Regolith will have a problem. I'm looking forward to this being asked in the Q&A though.
I'm pleased to see that nearly every cool idea of mine has already been discussed in detail here already.
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Regolith can NOT be treated as a solid. For purposes of discussion, think of it as a thick sheet of paper. A .090" Thick piece of fiber board is very flexible, and can deform a great deal (not as much as water obviously) It will be sitting on carpet, which is a porous medium, full of air at 14.7 PSI (in ideal terms at sea level, STP blah, blah, blah). If you expose the top side of this flexible member to a reduced pressure, say 14.2 (1/2PSI delta) you will have that 225 pounds of force pushing up on the sheet. One of the kids almost broke a window at the school last year by sticking the funnel against it with the vacuum on. If a quick thinking person hadn't turned off the vacuum immediately, the glass would likely have shattered. As it was, a witness on the other side of the glass said that it bowed inward a significant distance before the vacuum was shut off.
No cardboard box can withstand 40 PSI internal (or external) pressure (unless it is very tiny). Perhaps 40 PSI is the breaking strength of the cardboard? At my last job we had a cube shaped hydraulic tank pressurized to 5 (five) PSI. It was large, maybe 28" on a side. In order to prevent bowing of the sides, it was 3/8" thick steel with internal ribbing.