[quote][b]The Hindenburg Ignited due to an electrical potential difference betwwen the blimp and the ground (essentially the same process that causes lightning bolts). When the electricity jumped through the conductive lines of the tether lines, it ignited the hydrogen gas in the dirigible (actually, the Hindenburg was a dirigible, blimps have no frame--my mistake).
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The initial cause of the fire was the potential difference between the ground and the craft aswell as between the seperate sections that made up the blimp, which cause a spark. However the massive burning was not caused only by hydrogen, infact if it was hydrogen alone the fire would have been contained (relatively) to small region where the initial rupture occured as the hydrogen escaped. It turns out that the outercoating if the hindenburg (an industrial secret at the time), which was designed to reflect as much sunlight as possible, was infact a mix of aluminium and powdered iron oxide (among other things) - ie the outer skin was coated in what is now commonly called [i]Thermite[/i]. The initial spark caused the skin to ignite and burn away releasing the hydrogen rapidly hence the massive fireball. The flame people saw when the hindenburg burned was not the colour of burning hydrogen, it was mainly the colour of burning thermite. Of course at that time people thought hydrogen was the only flamable thing on the airship and blamed that as they didn't know about the make up of the hindenburg's outer coating.
CnlPepper - Glad he watched Channel 4....
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[b]HW:B5TC Dev. Team Member and B5TC Board Moderator.[/b]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/cnlpepperplanet"]CnlPepper's B5 Mod Resources[/url]
[This message has been edited by CnlPepper (edited 09-20-2001).]
[quote]the Challenger incident (and the causes thereof) were one of the main reasons driving me to get a Mechanical Engineering degree.[/quote]
Wow. Rick you and I have something in common...that's also one of the main events that drove me to get my Mechanical Engineering degree.
I did an oral presentation on the Challenger Disaster in one of my college ME classes.
And as a side note, even though I thought it was cool, I have yet to actually USE Mohr's Circle or even SEE it being used. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]
Comments
[/b][/quote]
The initial cause of the fire was the potential difference between the ground and the craft aswell as between the seperate sections that made up the blimp, which cause a spark. However the massive burning was not caused only by hydrogen, infact if it was hydrogen alone the fire would have been contained (relatively) to small region where the initial rupture occured as the hydrogen escaped. It turns out that the outercoating if the hindenburg (an industrial secret at the time), which was designed to reflect as much sunlight as possible, was infact a mix of aluminium and powdered iron oxide (among other things) - ie the outer skin was coated in what is now commonly called [i]Thermite[/i]. The initial spark caused the skin to ignite and burn away releasing the hydrogen rapidly hence the massive fireball. The flame people saw when the hindenburg burned was not the colour of burning hydrogen, it was mainly the colour of burning thermite. Of course at that time people thought hydrogen was the only flamable thing on the airship and blamed that as they didn't know about the make up of the hindenburg's outer coating.
CnlPepper - Glad he watched Channel 4....
------------------
[b]HW:B5TC Dev. Team Member and B5TC Board Moderator.[/b]
[url="http://www.geocities.com/cnlpepperplanet"]CnlPepper's B5 Mod Resources[/url]
[This message has been edited by CnlPepper (edited 09-20-2001).]
Wow. Rick you and I have something in common...that's also one of the main events that drove me to get my Mechanical Engineering degree.
I did an oral presentation on the Challenger Disaster in one of my college ME classes.
And as a side note, even though I thought it was cool, I have yet to actually USE Mohr's Circle or even SEE it being used. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img]