Vacuum is a powerful thing

[m.mcmillen]

On a post last week something was said about what vacuum can do. Here is a video that I took today. I had an old 55 gallon drum and I connected a hose to the barrel and the hose to a vacuum pump. It took about 5 minutes for the barrel to implode. It was quite loud! Of course, the air compressor kicked on at the wrong time and made everything noisy.

 

[northcreek]

That's amazing...Mythbusters did a similar thing with a railroad tanker car. It took a while but, imploded much like the drum did.

 

[Mooseman]

It's not the vacuum, it's the air pressure around it

 

[littleblazer]

That's amazing...Mythbusters did a similar thing with a railroad tanker car. It took a while but, imploded much like the drum did.

If I remember correctly, it wouldn't implode until it had a dent in the tank... but it was violent when it did.

When we discuss purging tanks in class, the tank has a recommended vacuum to purge with, generally around 22 mmhg so as to not have this happen. Then you inert it with nitrogen.