Dealing with compressed Crude Oil

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
The dupes encountered this pocket of compressed crude oil. It was about 70 tiles at a pressure of about 3000 Kg per tile.

I figured it would expand if the dupes dug into it, so I had them start excavating an area above the oil. At one point, after doing some digging, the ceiling above the oil pocket was only one tile thick.

The oil started leaking through, and then one of the tiles disintegrated and there was a flood of oil, before anyone was ready to deal with it.

I was wondering if anyone cared to comment on dealing with compressed crude oil. Thanks.
-Scott

[madcow]

Crude takes up about 870Kg per tile, so what I usually due is figure out how many tiles of space it will eventually fill. That's about it.

I'm usually just concerned with not releasing zombie spores into the biome or having the crude hit hot abyss tiles and flash to sour gas.

[valenti_scott]

How many tiles would you leave in place around the crude oil pocket, while digging out space for it? Is two tiles enough? I found out the hard way that one tile is not enough.

I'm not familiar with zombie spores, hot abyss tiles or sour gas. More things to learn!

[madcow]

70 compressed tiles x 3000Kg/compressed tile x 1 uncompressed tile/870Kg = aprox 240 uncompressed tiles.

[Xilo The Odd]

well the idea is that knowing oil sits at about 870kg per tile in normal conditions you take that 3000kg per tile, divide by the 870kg, then multiply that answer by how many oil tiles there are in the pocket and that will be the amount of expansion you can expect. fluid under pressure can destroy most any single tile so if your not ready for it, leaving a two tile thick wall is often the best choice.

edit: cow beat me to it xD. so yeah that is a LOT of oil you'd need to make space for.

[madcow]

How thick depends on the hardness of the material and the pressure its going to have to deal with. Double tiles of a non-soft mineral usually works. Single layer of airflow tile will also never break from a liquid.

[valenti_scott]

I think I wasn't clear; I meant how many tiles thick a wall of natural material should be, while they are digging out a chamber on the other side of the wall. I don't want the wall to collapse because of the oil pressure.

Part of the issue here is that the material is sometimes lead, which is soft. For now I will assume two tiles of non-soft.

[Xilo The Odd]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

I think I wasn't clear; I meant how many tiles thick a wall of natural material should be, while they are digging out a chamber on the other side of the wall. I don't want the wall to collapse because of the oil pressure.

Part of the issue here is that the material is sometimes lead, which is soft. For now I will assume two tiles of non-soft.

if possible i'd put a yellow alert on any non oil adjacent lead tiles to be replaced with a stone tile of some kind. something like granite or obsidian would work, materials like that at 2 tiles thick should contain it.

[valenti_scott]

I assume the yellow alert causes the tile to be dug-out and replaced immediately, so there is no leakage?

I tried the two-tiles thick idea (natural material), non-soft, but the oil broke through anyway.

[Xilo The Odd]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

I assume the yellow alert causes the tile to be dug-out and replaced immediately, so there is no leakage?

I tried the two-tiles thick idea (natural material), non-soft, but the oil broke through anyway.

ah, then you might have to go 3 thick. two thick dupe made tiles are typically enough but if you cant get close enough to it and 2 thick natural tiles with high hardness are still leaking, then you may just have to go 3 thick with a dupe made tile around 2 natural tiles for now until your ready to breach it and watch the flood happen.

[Hedning]

I just dig into it. It will spill up, but go back down again as dupes are excavating the biome more. You should prepare with atmo suits anyway, and a liquid lock at the atmo suit checkpoint. If you get some sour gas that's really not a big deal. It will be contained to the oil biome where it's harmless.

[valenti_scott]

The main issue was that the oil rose up and above the atmo suit checkpoint and docks. So the dupes might have been scalded getting to the atmo suits.