Expansion Coolant Tank Project has...

[nsantos23]

... failed the tests!!!!!!! I sent the finished piece to my body at the NJTechnology Institute in New Brunswick for pressure tests and heat tests, guess what it failed!! sniiiifff they applied a maximum of 5000psi and a 650f temperature. I know those are extreme conditions but a little under than half of that, steel starts to deform under high temperature (300), as if it was aluminum it would hold the temperature better, i'm not sure about the pressure. Well this is what happened.... psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss, heheheh it cracked! not on the welding part but on the middle panel, awsome. well it was a few hundreds of bucks invested on the project and i'm outting it to rest. if anyone wants to see pictures of it before the test PM me with a email. Also i got a PDF of all the schematics that i created of all the parts needed for this project. The metal used was a 16gauge sheet, i should of used a thicker sheet or aluminum.

Thanks

Neo

[skid542]

Why the extreme pressure? I mean seriously, 5000psi is a shit ton of pressure. Any vessle that's supposed to hold that kind of pressure is also shaped to help evenly distribute the stresses, aka it's round or eliptical. The temperature rating test seems a little high too but that one I can at least understand, would produce a reasonable safety factor.

[nsantos23]

yeah i know but thats the limit they go to, they did a lower pressure test 1000psi, but then again the heat generated made the steel too flexible to the point of giving up. Like i stated Aluminum would be a best bet, its more flexible and more heat resistant, so that way it would stretch beyond the limit capability of the steel. Now i know why they build engines out of aluminum.

Feedbacks pleeease

Thanks

Neo

[skid542]

I think you have your metalurgical ideas slightly off. Steel is stronger than aluminum and has a lower thermal expansion coefficient. If you wanted a high temperature, high pressure vessel, you want steel, not aluminum. If you had used aluminum it would have failed at a lower pressure for a given temperature. They build car engines of out aluminum for different reasons.

If they tested it at 1000psi and it was still holding then you have a plenty valid coolant tank design. 5000psi is just a lot for any vessel to hold unless it's been designed specifically for extreme pressure applications. Like I said, I think your coolant tank design is fine and the failure is a result of extreme loading and not design flaws. I say build another and run with it.

[Legacy777]

Dude,

I work in the natural gas pipeline industry, and we operate most of our pipelines at 860 psig. The pipe typically gets tested at 1 1/2 times the operating pressure.

Our coolant systems will not see over 100 psi....hell they shouldn't see over 75 psi. Obviously higher temperature is going to derate the strength, but geez....there's no reason to pressure test to 5000 psi....nor 1000 psi.

I'd test it to 500 psi at the most and let er rip.

What gauge metal are you making this tank out of?

[vrg3]

Right; cooling system is less than one bar.

How much pressure do you think those OEM beaded-hose-barb-plus-spring-hose-clamp joints can handle? I would expect those to pop off around two or three bars.

[Matt Monson]

Talk about overkill. I concur with the others. You totally overstressed this thing. Make another one and consider the designe good.

[nsantos23]

yeah i thought the pressure was a bit elevated, but they are industrial testing facility and thats how they test well i'll redo it, i thought about the system being weaker but even tho i wanted to push that thing to the limits too, well Version 2 will be coming up then in the next few weeks, lets see what happens. Oh BTW Josh it was made out of 16 gauge. well give me another week or 2 and i should have Version 2 ready. this time i need some ideas on the filler neck. Any ideas?

Neo

[THAWA]

So they tested the cap at approximately 34,474 kPa and 6,895 kPa. Whereas our cooling system is only set up for about 88 kPa, meaning they were testing it to almost 400 and 78 times the pressure, respectively. Like everyone else said, that's way too much. Not many things made can take stresses 400 times what it was designed for. Not even 78 times. That would be the like trying to get an EJ22T to make 64,000 hp or 12,480 hp.

[free5ty1e]

That would be the like trying to get an EJ22T to make 64,000 hp or 12,480 hp.

....sounds like fun. I'll get on that right away. [turning boost knob]

[rallysam]

5000 psi good lord!

Blowing something up with 5000 psi would be a hell of lot of fun to watch, but has no relevence to any system on our car.

[nsantos23]

HEHEHEHE i know