Here is a news article: Published 31 January 2011 
  
 Researchers show how the judicious choice of fluid filler can suppress the turbulent flow that severely hinders the “top-kill” plugging of a blown-out oil well. 
  
 See more in Physics ||||| Could Cornstarch Have Plugged BP's Oil Well? 
  
 toggle caption Jonathan Makiri/NPR 
  
 While you were thumbing through your Feb. 4 issue of Physical Review Letters, perhaps you noticed the article titled "Viscoelastic Suppression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow Instability." 
  
 OK, maybe not. But it was actually worth a look. It turns out the article describes how engineers might have been able to stop the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last year using a child's plaything: oobleck. It's a weird mixture of cornstarch and water. When it moves slowly, it flows like a liquid. Move it fast, and it freezes into a solid. 
  
 The idea of using oobleck came to Jonathan Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, last May. He was on a small group of experts that U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu pulled together to advise him about the catastrophe. 
  
 So Katz was on hand when BP tried to stop the well by pumping a dense fluid called drilling mud down it — the so-called top-kill approach. It failed. 
  
 "We'd predicted that [would fail], so we were disappointed like everybody else was, but not enormously surprised," Katz says. "And so I was scratching my head and saying, 'Is there some solution to this problem?' " 
  
 Make Your Own Oobleck Oobleck is remarkably easy to make: Just combine 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water. Slowly stir in the cornstarch into the water. Mix slowly — you'll find that the more aggressive the stirring, the harder it is. Add a few drops of food coloring if you wish. 
  
 Oobleck Vs. Oil 
  
 The problem, as Katz saw it, was that oil and gas blasting up the well tended to break up the drilling mud into fine particles, and a light mist like that ends up getting shot up the pipe and dumped onto the seafloor. 
  
 Katz wondered whether there was some kind of fluid that wouldn't immediately be dispersed into tiny particles when it encountered the rapidly flowing oil. 
  
 "I realized after a while that cornstarch suspension — oobleck, the kids call it — has this wonderful property that if it's not flowing rapidly, it's a liquid that flows pretty well," Katz says. "But if you try to make it flow rapidly, it suddenly turns stiff and it doesn't flow at all." 
  
 Oobleck versus a stream of bubbling hot oil? Really? Yep. 
  
 "I made some rough estimates; it looked like it was going to work," Katz says. 
  
 And Katz had an inside track here — being on the energy secretary's advisory panel, he participated in daily telephone briefings and frequent e-mail exchanges. He had about as much access as you could hope. 
  
 "So I certainly sent it to everybody on the lists. I don't know who read it — you can never tell," he says. 
  
 But Katz was dismissed from the panel shortly thereafter because of some controversial social opinions on his website. Even so, Katz says he still dreamed that his solution could solve the problem and end in triumph. Of course it didn't work out that way. 
  
 "I don't fault the pros," he says. "They have a toolbox; they use the tools in their toolbox. This isn't the place to do physics experiments, especially one that would cost quite a bit of money." 
  
 Cornstarch is cheap, but the rest of the operation would not be. 
  
 "And of course the drilling mud industry isn't used to mixing cornstarch into their stuff, so it was completely new for them," he says. "It wasn't something they had available in their tanks ready to go. They would have had to prepare a custom solution and take it out to the well." 
  
 A Pumping Problem 
  
 And that was not going to happen. Instead, after BP stopped the well through more conventional means, Katz and some associates at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory did a small-scale experiment with the cornstarch mixture and mineral oil. 
  
 They report in that Physical Review Letters article that it performed as Katz had predicted under these highly idealized circumstances. Whether it would have worked in the real world is an open question. Prof. Steve Wereley, who teaches fluid dynamics at Purdue University, says the concept is clever. 
  
 "The problem with using something like cornstarch and water is getting it where it needs to be," Wereley says. 
  
 You'd have to pump a lot of it, fast, into the well if it's going to work. And there might be trouble pumping it — remember, oobleck gets stiff when it's put under pressure. 
  
 "It would tend to create that same reaction when you're trying to pump it down the hole." 
  
 Wereley calculates that you'd have to pump it so slowly that you couldn't get it down the hole faster than the oil was rushing up. And that's a big problem. 
  
 A BP spokeswoman told NPR their engineers reviewed the idea and decided it wouldn't work. But Katz still figures it's a good idea worth exploring for the next time an oil well is running completely out of control. |||||
A summary of this is?
– From a month-old copy of Physical Review Letters, NPR stumbled on an article bearing the somewhat impenetrable title, "Viscoelastic Suppression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow Instability." Behind the mouthful was an interesting premise: That the calamitous BP well could have been plugged using oobleck. The combination of two parts cornstarch to one part water, which takes its name from Dr. Seuss's Bartholomew and the Oobleck, is a bizarre substance that flows like a liquid at slow speeds, and turns solid at fast. The idea is the brainchild of physics professor Jonathan Katz, who noted that in the failed top-kill approach, the oil and gas rocketing up the well broke the drilling mud into fine particles. That made him wonder whether there was a fluid that wouldn't share the same fate—and then he thought of oobleck. Katz, who was on the energy secretary's advisory panel, sent out his idea; but he was cut from the panel a short time later due to some controversial social opinions on his website. The report in Physical Review Letters notes that when Katz experimented with the mixture and mineral oil under highly idealized circumstances, it did indeed work. A BP spokeswoman told NPR its engineers decided the idea wouldn't fly, and one professor of fluid dynamics points out another issue: Because oobleck turns into a solid at fast speeds, he calculated that you'd have to pump it so slowly that you couldn't get it down the hole faster than the oil was coming up.
Här är en nyhetsartikel: Publicerad 31 januari 2011 Forskare visar hur det kloka valet av vätskefyllnadsmedel kan undertrycka det turbulenta flödet som allvarligt hindrar den “top-kill” pluggningen av en utblåst oljekälla. Se mer i fysik <unk> <unk> Kan majsstärkelse ha plumpat BP: s oljekälla? Toggle bildtext Jonathan Makiri/NPR Medan du tummade igenom ditt 4 feb nummer av Physical Review Letters, kanske du lade märke till artikeln med titeln "Viscoelastic Supression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow instabil." Okej, kanske inte. Men det var faktiskt värt en titt. Det visar sig att artikeln beskriver hur ingenjörer kunde ha kunnat stoppa BP-utblåsningen i Mexikanska golfen förra året med hjälp av ett barns leksak: oobleck. En konstig blandning av majsstärkelse och vatten. När den rör sig långsamt flyter den som en vätska. Rör den snabbt, och den fryser till ett fast ämne. Idén att använda oobleck kom till Jonathan Katz, en fysikprofessor vid Washington University i Saint Louis i maj förra året. Han var med i en liten grupp experter som USA:s energiminister Steven Chu drog ihop för att ge honom råd om katastrofen. Så Katz var till hands när BP försökte stoppa brunnen genom att pumpa en tät vätska som kallas borrslam ner i den – det så kallade toppkill-tillvägagångssättet. Det misslyckades. "Vi hade förutspått att [skulle misslyckas], så vi var besvikna som alla andra var, men inte enormt överraskade", säger Katz. "Så jag kliade mig i huvudet och sa: "Finns det någon lösning på det här problemet?" "Gör din egen Oobleck Oobleck är anmärkningsvärt lätt att göra: Bara kombinera 2 delar majsstärkelse till 1 del vatten. Rör långsamt ner majsstärkelsen i vattnet. Blanda långsamt — du kommer att finna att ju mer aggressiv omrörning, desto svårare är det. Lägg till några droppar mat färg om du vill. Oobleck Vs. Oil Problemet, som Katz såg det, var att olja och gas som sprängde upp brunnen tenderade att bryta upp borrslammet till fina partiklar, och en lätt dimma som denna slutar med att bli skjuten upp röret och dumpade på havsbottnen. Katz undrade om det fanns någon form av vätska som inte omedelbart skulle skingras i små partiklar när den stötte på den snabbt flödande oljan. "Jag insåg efter ett tag att majsstärkelse suspension — oobleck, barnen kallar det — har denna underbara egenskap att om det inte flödar snabbt, är det en vätska som flyter ganska bra", säger Katz. "Men om man försöker få det att flyta snabbt, blir det plötsligt stelt och det flyter inte alls." Oobleck mot en ström av bubblande varm olja? Verkligen? Japp. "Jag gjorde några grova uppskattningar; det såg ut som om det skulle fungera", säger Katz. Och Katz hade en insida här — att vara på energisekreterarens rådgivande panel, han deltog i dagliga telefongenomgångar och täta e-postutbyten. Han hade så mycket tillgång som man kunde hoppas. "Så jag skickade det till alla på listorna. Jag vet inte vem som läst den — det kan man aldrig säga, säger han. Men Katz avskedades från panelen kort därefter på grund av några kontroversiella sociala åsikter på sin hemsida. Trots det säger Katz att han fortfarande drömde om att hans lösning skulle kunna lösa problemet och sluta i triumf. Det var klart att det inte blev så. "Jag klandrar inte proffsen", säger han. "De har en verktygslåda; de använder verktygen i sin verktygslåda. Det här är inte rätt plats att göra fysikexperiment, speciellt inte ett som skulle kosta en hel del pengar." Majsstärkelsen är billig, men resten av operationen skulle inte vara det. "Och naturligtvis är borrslamsindustrin inte van vid att blanda majsstärkelse i sina saker, så det var helt nytt för dem", säger han. "Det var inte något de hade tillgängligt i sina stridsvagnar redo att åka. De skulle ha måst bereda en sednare lösning och taga den ut till brunnen.» Ett pumpande problem och det skulle inte hända. Efter att BP stoppat brunnen genom mer konventionella medel gjorde Katz och några medarbetare vid Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory istället ett småskaligt experiment med majsstärkelseblandningen och mineraloljan. De rapporterar i artikeln Physical Review Letters att den utförde som Katz hade förutsagt under dessa mycket idealiserade omständigheter. Huruvida det skulle ha fungerat i den verkliga världen är en öppen fråga. Professor Steve Wereley, som undervisar i flytande dynamik vid Purdue University, säger att konceptet är smart. "Problemet med att använda något som majsstärkelse och vatten är att få det dit det behöver vara", säger Wereley. Man måste pumpa in mycket i brunnen om det ska fungera. Och det kan bli svårt att pumpa den — kom ihåg, oobleck blir stel när den sätts under tryck. "Det tenderar att skapa samma reaktion när du försöker pumpa ner den i hålet." Wereley räknar ut att man måste pumpa den så långsamt att man inte kunde få ner den i hålet snabbare än oljan rusade upp. Och det är ett stort problem. En BP-taleskvinna sa till NPR att deras ingenjörer granskade idén och bestämde att det inte skulle fungera. Men Katz tror fortfarande att det är en bra idé värt att utforska för nästa gång en oljekälla håller på att bli helt utom kontroll. En sammanfattning av detta är?
Here is a news article: Published: Friday, 31 January 2011 Researchers show how the wise choice of liquid filler can suppress the turbulent flow that seriously prevents the “top-kill” plugging of a blown-out oil well. See more in physics <unk> <unk> Could cornstarch have plummeted BP's oil well? Toggle caption Jonathan Makiri/NPR While thumbing through your Feb 4 issue of Physical Review Letters, you may have noticed the article titled "Viscoelastic Suppression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow unstable." Okay, maybe not. But it was actually worth a look. It turns out that the article describes how engineers could have stopped the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last year using a child's toy: oobleck. A strange mixture of cornstarch and water. As it moves slowly, it floats like a liquid. Touch it quickly, and it freezes to a solid. The idea of using oobleck came to Jonathan Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis last May. He was in a small group of experts that U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu pulled together to advise him on the disaster. So Katz was on hand when BP tried to stop the well by pumping a dense liquid called drilling sludge into it—the so-called top-kill approach. It failed. "We had predicted that [would fail], so we were disappointed as everyone else was, but not hugely surprised," Katz says. "So I scratched my head and said, "Is there a solution to this problem?" "Make your own Oobleck Oobleck is remarkably easy to make: Just combine 2 parts of cornstarch into 1 part of water. Slowly stir the corn starch into the water. Mix slowly — you will find that the more aggressive stirring, the harder it is. Add a few drops of food color if you want. Oobleck Vs. Oil The problem, as Katz saw it, was that oil and gas that blew up the well tended to break up the drilling sludge into fine particles, and a slight fog like this ends up being shot up the pipe and dumped on the seabed. Katz wondered if there was any form of liquid that would not immediately disperse in small particles when it encountered the rapidly flowing oil. "I realized after a while that corn starch suspension — oobleck, the children call it — has this wonderful quality that if it doesn't flow quickly, it's a liquid that floats quite well," Katz says. "But if you try to make it flow fast, it suddenly gets stiff and it doesn't float at all." Oobleck against a stream of bubbling hot oil? Really? Yep. "I made some rough estimates; it looked like it would work," Katz says. And Katz had an inside here — being on the energy secretary's advisory panel, he participated in daily telephone briefings and frequent email exchanges. He had as much access as one could hope. "So I sent it to everyone on the lists. I don't know who read it — you can never say that, he says. But Katz was dismissed from the panel shortly thereafter due to some controversial social views on his website. Nevertheless, Katz says that he still dreamed that his solution could solve the problem and end in triumph. Of course it didn't. "I don't blame the professionals," he says. "They have a toolbox; they use the tools in their toolbox. This is not the place to do physics experiments, especially one that would cost a lot of money." The cornstarch is cheap, but the rest of the operation wouldn't be. "And of course the drilling sludge industry is not used to mixing corn starch into its things, so it was completely new to them," he says. "It wasn't something they had available in their tanks ready to go. They would have prepared a custom, and would have taken it out to the well." A pumping problem and that wouldn't happen. After BP stopped the well by more conventional means, Katz and some associates at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory instead did a small-scale experiment with the corn starch mixture and mineral oil. They report in the article Physical Review Letters that it performed as Katz had predicted under these highly idealized circumstances. Whether it would have worked in the real world is an open question. Professor Steve Wereley, who teaches fluid dynamics at Purdue University, says the concept is smart. "The problem with using something like corn starch and water is getting it where it needs to be," Wereley says. You have to pump a lot into the well if it's to work. And it can be difficult to pump it — remember, oobleck becomes stiff when put under pressure. "It tends to create the same reaction when you try to pump it into the hole." Wereley calculates that you have to pump it so slowly that you couldn't get it into the hole faster than the oil rushed up. And that's a big problem. A BP spokeswoman told NPR that their engineers reviewed the idea and decided it would not work. But Katz still thinks it's a good idea worth exploring for the next time an oil well is becoming completely out of control. A summary of this is?
– Från en månad gammal kopia av Physical Review Letters snubblade NPR på en artikel med den något ogenomträngliga titeln, "Viscoelastiskt undertryckande av Gravity-Driven Motflöde ostabil." Bakom munfull var en intressant premiss: Att den olycksbådande BP väl kunde ha pluggats med hjälp av oobleck. Kombinationen av två delar majsstärkelse till en del vatten, som tar sitt namn från Dr Seuss Bartholomew och Oobleck, är ett bisarrt ämne som flyter som en vätska i långsamma hastigheter, och blir fast i snabb. Idén är fysikprofessorn Jonathan Katz hjärnbarn, som konstaterade att i det misslyckade topp-kill-sättet, bröt oljan och gasen upp borrslammet i fina partiklar. Det fick honom att undra om det fanns en vätska som inte skulle dela samma öde – och då tänkte han på oobleck. Katz, som satt med i energisekreterarens rådgivande panel, skickade ut sin idé; men han klipptes en kort tid senare bort från panelen på grund av några kontroversiella sociala åsikter på sin webbplats. Rapporten i Physical Review Letters konstaterar att när Katz experimenterade med blandningen och mineralolja under mycket idealiserade omständigheter, det verkligen fungerade. En BP-taleskvinna berättade för NPR dess ingenjörer bestämde idén inte skulle flyga, och en professor i vätskedynamik påpekar en annan fråga: Eftersom oobleck förvandlas till en solid i snabba hastigheter, beräknade han att man skulle behöva pumpa den så långsamt att man inte kunde få ner den i hålet snabbare än oljan var på väg upp.
– From a month-old copy of Physical Review Letters, NPR stumbled on an article with the somewhat impenetrable title, "Viscoelastic suppression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow unstable." Behind mouthfuls was an interesting premise: That the ominous BP could well have been plugged with the help of oobleck. The combination of two parts of cornstarch into some water, taking its name from Dr. Seuss Bartholomew and Oobleck, is a bizarre substance that floats like a liquid at slow speeds, becoming stuck in fast. The idea is physics professor Jonathan Katz's brainchild, who noted that in the failed top-guy way, the oil and gas broke the drilling sludge into fine particles. It made him wonder if there was a liquid that would not share the same fate — and then he thought of oobleck. Katz, who was on the energy secretary's advisory panel, sent out his idea; but he was cut off from the panel a short time later due to some controversial social views on his website. The report in Physical Review Letters notes that when Katz experimented with the mixture and mineral oil under very idealized circumstances, it really worked. A BP spokeswoman told NPR its engineers determined the idea would not fly, and a professor of fluid dynamics points out another question: Since oobleck turns into a solid at fast speeds, he calculated that you would have to pump it so slowly that you couldn't get it into the hole faster than the oil was coming up.