creating a balloonlike plug to hold back floodwater
DESCRIPTION
Creating a Balloonlike Plug to Hold Back FloodwaterTRANSCRIPT
12/5/12 10:58 AMCreating a Balloonlike Plug to Hold Back Floodwaters - NYTimes.com
Page 1 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/science/creating-a-balloonlike-plug-to-hold-back-floodwaters.html?ref=science
Search All NYTimes.com
Advertise on NYTimes.com
Multimedia
Plugging Up a Subway Tunnel
Connect WithUs on SocialMedia@nytimesscience onTwitter.
Holding Back Floodwaters With a Balloon
By HENRY FOUNTAINPublished: November 19, 2012
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With a few dull thuds, the one-ton bag ofhigh-strength fabric tumbled from the wall of the mock subwaytunnel and onto the floor. Then it began to grow.
As air flowed into it through a hose,the bundle inflated until it wascrammed tight inside the 16-foot-diameter tunnel, looking like thefilling in a giant concrete-and-steelcannoli.
The three-minute procedure,conducted on a chilly morning thismonth in an airport hangar not farfrom West Virginia University, wasthe latest test of a device that maysomeday help guard real tunnels during disasters —whether a terrorist strike or a storm like Hurricane Sandy,whose wind-driven surge of water overwhelmed New YorkCity’s subway system, shutting it down for days.
Despite BobDole’s Wish,RepublicansReject DisabilitiesTreaty
Mayor Clinton?Bloomberg UrgedHer to Consider aRun
Log In With Facebook
MOST E-MAILED RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
23 articles in thepast month All Recommendations
Log in to see what your friendsare sharing on nytimes.com.Privacy Policy | What’s This?
What’s Popular Now
Advertisement
Sign up for ticket offers from Broadway shows and [email protected] Change E-mail Address | Privacy Policy
TicketWatch: Theater Offers by E-Mail
1. A Forlorn Shuttle Points to Progress in theRockaways
2. Antarctic Eats
HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR
ScienceWORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS
ENVIRONMENT SPACE & COSMOS
Protecting Tunnels Against Disaster: A look at an inflatable device that could save tunnels from flooding.
GOOGLE+
SAVE
SHARE
SINGLE PAGE
REPRINTS
Graphic
Subscribe to Home Delivery Helpcross3...U.S. Edition
12/5/12 10:58 AMCreating a Balloonlike Plug to Hold Back Floodwaters - NYTimes.com
Page 2 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/science/creating-a-balloonlike-plug-to-hold-back-floodwaters.html?ref=science
Science Reporters and Editors onTwitter
Like the science desk on Facebook.
Enlarge This Image
Patrick Cashin/Metropolitan TransportationAuthority
Hurricane Sandy brought 13-footstorm surge into the New York City'ssubway tunnels.
“The goal is to provide flooding protection fortransportation tunnels,” said John Fortune, who ismanaging the project for the federal Department ofHomeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.
The idea is a simple one: rather than retrofitting tunnelswith metal floodgates or other expensive structures, theproject aims to use a relatively cheap inflatable plug to holdback floodwaters.
In theory, it would be like blowing up a balloon inside atube. But in practice, developing a plug that is strong,durable, quick to install and foolproof to deploy is adifficult engineering task, one made even more challengingbecause of the pliable, relatively lightweight materialsrequired.
“Water is heavy, there’s a lot of pressure,” said Greg Holter, an engineer with PacificNorthwest National Laboratory who helps manage the project. “So it’s not as simple as justinflating and filling the space. The plug has to be able to withstand the pressure of thewater behind it.”
The idea has been in development for more than five years — this test was the 21st — andDr. Fortune says there are at least a few more years of testing and design work ahead. Ifthe plugs are shown to be effective, they will be made available to transit systems aroundthe country; at least initially, they are expected to cost about $400,000 each.
“We have frequent conversations with folks in mass transit agencies, the true experts inthe field, on how this would be deployed,” Dr. Fortune said, although he declined to namespecific agencies, citing the antiterrorism aspect of the project.
Adam Lisberg, the chief spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whichruns New York City’s transit systems, said the damage caused by the storm “is certainlygoing to focus our attention” on ways to protect the subways. “But it’s way too early to talkabout any particular technology that’s been proposed,” he said.
In all, seven of the city’s 14 under-river subway tunnels were flooded during the storm, aswere several major highway tunnels. Dr. Fortune said that plugs might work for highwaytunnels, too, but that the larger size of those tunnels created additional technicalchallenges that would have to be overcome.
Work on the plug began in 2007, after Ever J. Barbero, a West Virginia professor whosespecialty is the use of advanced materials in engineering, was contacted by a HomelandSecurity official looking for outside-the-box ideas on ways to keep a subway system fromflooding if an underwater tunnel were breached — by a terrorist bomb, for example.
“I didn’t know anything about this,” he said. “Then I found out what happened inChicago.”
Dr. Barbero was referring to a 1992 episode in which an abandoned freight tunnel underthe Chicago River was breached by a crew sinking bridge pilings. That led to a flood thatcaused close to $2 billion in damage to downtown buildings as the water spreadunderground.
Dr. Barbero came up with an idea and shared it with Homeland Security officials. “I said,‘We’ll put an air bag in a tunnel,’ ” he recalled. The department was intrigued — officials
Go to Your Recommendations »What’s This? | Don’t Show
PRESENTED BY
3. THE TEXAS TRIBUNESome See Logistical Issues and Elitism inToll Lanes
4. OPINIONBeyond Black and White in the MississippiDelta
5. Terms of Greek Bond Buyback TopExpectations
6. RECIPES FOR HEALTHFor Holiday Party Fare, Try a Purée
7. RECIPES FOR HEALTHCarrot Purée
8. LOOKFolk Medicine
9. Still Building at the Edges of the City, Evenas Tides Rise
10. OPINIONMany More Images, Much Less Meaning
Big boys lay out their OscarbaitALSO IN MOVIES »
Amanda Seyfried and the Hathaway extractionA.O. Scott and the many meanings of "Lincoln"
Ads by Google what's this?
Emergency Care ManagementMake a difference and become an
EMT. Financial aid available!
www.libi.edu/ad/html/libi_career.html
12/5/12 10:58 AMCreating a Balloonlike Plug to Hold Back Floodwaters - NYTimes.com
Page 3 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/science/creating-a-balloonlike-plug-to-hold-back-floodwaters.html?ref=science
A version of this article appeared in print on November 20, 2012, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline:Holding Back Floodwaters With a Balloon.
SAVE E-MAIL SHARE
Floods
Subways
Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics
Transit Systems
Bridges and Tunnels
were familiar with European efforts to develop plugs to seal tunnels from gas and smokeafter a series of deadly tunnel fires — and decided to finance the project. About $8 millionhas been spent so far.
Dr. Barbero realized that the forces exerted on the pressurized plug, and the need to relyon friction against the tunnel walls to keep it in place under the onslaught of floodwaters,meant that it had to be made from very tough materials. Experts from ILC Dover, acompany in Delaware that makes high-strength soft structures like spacesuits and theforce-absorbing air bags used for some of the Mars rover landings, suggested fabric madefrom Vectran, a strong but lightweight yarn spun from a liquid-crystal polymer.
But the first full-scale plug, made with a single layer of Vectran, failed during a pressuretest in 2010. “It ripped right down the middle, from back to front,” Dr. Fortune said.
So Dr. Barbero and ILC came up with a three-layer plug, with the outer layer consisting ofwoven Vectran belts. It is designed so that the tearing of one belt will not cause acatastrophic failure.
NEXT PAGE »
Ads by Google what's this?
Luxury Apartment Tel AvivWhite City: Luxury Penthouses
Neve Tzedek - Central Tel Aviv !
Penthouses-Boutique.com/White-City
© 2012 The New York Times Company Site Map Privacy Your Ad Choices Advertise Terms of Sale Terms of Service Work With Us RSS Help Contact UsSite Feedback
DINING & WINE »
Gluten-Free Dishes BecomeMore Tempting
OPINION »
Invitation to a Dialogue:How to Treat A.D.H.D.
HEALTH »
For Athletes, Risks fromIbuprofen Use
BOOKS »
Professor Who Learns FromPeasants
OPINION »
Editorial:Rigging theFinancialSystemWill authorities reallyhold banks and bankersaccountable formanipulating interestrates?
U.S. »
Penn Museum Pushes forBroader Public Appeal
1 2
INSIDE NYTIMES.COM