Steam cannon

[daxspudder]

D_halls stories are true, Im on a nuclear sub, and that used to be the way they did in, now there are just isolations to the RC that keep the steam from continuing to leak...

a cannon like this was built by the mythbusters with a reenforced water heater..

[frankrede]

My brother was a boiler tech in the Navy, you should here some of the highpressure steam leak stories...

Former Navy here....

Yes, high pressure steam is nothing to be trifled with. We would keep cans of broom handles around. The handles were for finding steam leaks. Keep in mind....

At those temperatures, steam doesn't just immediately condense back out. So you can't see a steam leak any more than you can see an air leak.

Result? You can hear it, but where is it?

You hunt for it with the broom handle. When the handle gets cut in half, that's when you've found your leak.

NASTY stuff.




edit: And for what it's worth, steam turbines (read: Navy) use dry steam. "Dry steam" is the accepted term for water that is past it's critical point. In other words... Roughly 700 degrees (and about 3000 psi).


editagain: And since the OP was asking about 500 psi... That implies approximately 470 F.

Off-topic, but Hospital Corpsman in the DEP right here.

[psycix]

The largest advantage of using steam is the lighter molecular weight (higher speed of sound). But with those temperatures, even air would already have a higher sound barrier then normal.
For the rest, steam almost only has disadvantages.

[sssssbooom]

I found this
http://www.instructables.com/id/Steam_P ... Pistol_10/
sounds like a fun little project