How Would YOU Stop the BP Oil Flow?

The System & Product Design Engineering group on LinkedIn has an active discussion underway with comments, suggestions and opinions about how to stop the oil pouring out of BP’s ill-fated well 5000 feet under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is a sample of comments…

I would think that the best technique (top Kill) has been counted as a failure, 
however I don’t really think so they just pumped in the wrong materials with the 
drilling fluids(metal and rubber). If we are getting sand based asphaltic nodules 
which are washing ashore, the same types materials such as an asphaltic 
compatible material could be pumped into the drilling fluid after a controlled 
drilled relief well is drilled first… –Roderick Whitfield, Design Engineer.

Having worked in the gulf on some of this type of equipment and with the submersible robots in the mid 80s; I have a bit of an idea of the difficulty of working at the depths and pressures of 5,000 feet. On day 2 or 3 I had discussed with my wife (also an engineer) cutting off the casing and installing an open valve. Something this obvious must have had some difficulty that we don’t understand. –David Toyne, Owner, Solutions for Automation.

Why not use a compression-type fitting that fits over the O.D. of the pipe and connects to a gate valve, I would think this technology already exists as well and would not require a precise cut of the pipe. Eric Niemi, Project Engineer at Man & Material Lift Engineering.

Image courtesy of BP.

And you’ll find 36 more comments and more details at this interesting LinkedIn group. Join the conversation at: www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2976213. If you’re not already a member of the Linkedin community, sign up and join the “System & Product Design Engineering” group. –Jon Titus