100 comments on The Air Car - A Breath Of Fresh Air Or A Waste Of Breath ?
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Oh, they certainly have the potential to "destroy a house." But the trick is that with 40 gallons or so at 300psi and umpteen degrees...when the pressure is released - it flash boils. So you get that first crack in the water heater and it all turns into water vapor KAPOW! So the power there comes from 40 gallons of liquid turning into a gas - there's some serious expansion there. The MDI car's tank is designed to rupture in a certain way to direct the explosion and diffuse it as much as possible. At 3000 psi though, it's still a fricken bomb.
"The MDI car's tank is designed to rupture in a certain way to direct the explosion and diffuse it as much as possible."
One of the miracles of composite materials. CNG is also stored at this pressure on vehicles with few safety concerns, so given that air is a significantly less flammable gas I'm not so concerned.