Mensa's World Gathering 2021

Sessions Speakers Floor Plan Buzz

Hammering Destruction Into the World Around Us: The Fluid Transient Disaster (Room Lanier Grand Ballroom J)

Exploded into the headlines of our lives, fluid transients — called water hammers, steam hammers, or pneumatic hammers — cause massive destruction. Catastrophic pressure waves in piping systems are caused by the simple operations of valves and pumps that induce nearly sonic pressure waves in pipes. Pressure waves caused Fukushima explosions that fired radioactive dust into the atmosphere and around the planet; explosions at Three Mile Island; hundreds of ongoing small nuclear power plant explosions; more than 250,000 yearly water main breaks costing $1 trillion in 25 years; steam pipeline explosions that kill people; gas pipeline explosions that kill people every year; the Gulf oil spill: and more than 80 offshore oil-well fires around the globe. The 2015 Foundation Mensa Copper Black Award for Creative Intelligence was awarded for this continuing, full-time, volunteer research. Research was proved in textbooks, conference publications, magazine articles, and journal publications. This worldwide disaster can be stopped!