In reply to RC Macaulay's message of Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:00:35 -0600:
Hi,
[snip]
Interesting question. Consider the thermal updrafts that occur during huge
forest fires. I have noticed TV news live vid of vertical vortex forming
that eyeball measure some 5000 ft high. In an instant of 1 to 3 seconds ,
a fire cone accelerates up the vortex. I have noticed this in several vids
of forest fires in extreme mountanous terrain. Calculating the eyeball
height of the cone and the time duration makes the fire travel some 2500-
5000 feet per second.... Naw !, It can't be... Something is taking place
I don't understand.
[snip]
Footage I have seen of forest fires on TV has never shown a flame more
than
twice the height of the trees. 2500-5000 feet is up in the clouds.
Can you find an instance of the coverage that you refer to on the web?
Howdy Robin,
I have seen this event twice. Once the past year during a Colorado forest
fire.. I can't find it but it was the one the lady forest ranger set. I
calculated the height of the adjacent mountain terrain. The fire on the side
down between the rugged slopes had to be between 2500 to 5000 feet change
below the peaks. A funnel type vortex would form and the flame would shoot
straight up above the peaks.. weird to witness... the thing that caught my
attention was the velocity of the vertical flame inside the vortex. The
flame would suddenly shoot up inside the vortex in 1-3 seconds. wow
Since that time I have asked if anyone fighting a fire of this type had ever
witnessed an event of this type.. One mentioned they have seen such and it
was accompanied by a whirling noise like a banshee. so much for things that
go bump in the night.
It gave us the idea for trying to achieve acceleration of a vortex. Some
time back a guy bamed Bull invented a horwitzer that could shoot 250 or more
miles. He used a series of ejector throats feeding into the next series of
ejector throats. The gun barrel was some 150 feet long.. One was found in
Iraq during the Gulf War. Iraq was planning to shell Isreal by lobbing a
projectile into the near space.Try to imagine the muzzle velocity.
We will be testing a series of "throats" with the hope we may achieve some
acceleration of the vortex funnel.. hmmm.. fun stuff.
Richard.
