Dubai airport flooded
On aviation axial compressor engines, like RR Spey and mixed compressor P&W PT6, I have only done the demineralised water (but sometimes + a chemical) wash.
With the phasing out of demin water injection types ( partly due noise rulings) the airport stopped storing the water and it became a pain to get from local refineries; we bought a filtration plant, but it was not practical, the local water was both high in salt and chlorine content, both harmful to the engine metals.
Join Date: Apr 2024
Location: Canaries
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
First: I am not a pilot. Only held a PPL-A long ago. I have a foot in the geosciences. Found that forum and thread by accident (nobody was hurt :-)) when reading this a recent Nature paper about "Future Changes of Precipitation Patterns Over the Arabian Peninsula" and searching for info on the flooding. I have been to the area (Sharjah, Dubai, Oman) on 2 occasions beacuse of archeology.
waito is right, cloud seeding was not involved here, besides its effectiveness being discussed controversally (depends on study ...), does not create rain just like that. Its intention is to cause clouds that have already formed and are in pre-stages of storms or potentially heavy rain (like the castellanus or congestus families) to condense and release their water prematurely, changing amount and place of rainfall.
The UAE do try to use its effects in a "weather enhancement program" (changing the place of the rainfall) to receive more rain that would otherwise just pass over as highly humid air or clouds. But as the UAE meterological office NCM said and reported by several news sites to debunk an earlier Bloomberg report, there were no cloud seeding operations at that time. That was a completely natural phenomenon.
It was said upthread that in Europe an equal amount of rain would have caused more damage. Well saidly that's true, but it has nothing to do with local (dis-)ingenuity!
Reports have it that in some places 250mm/m^2 of rain fell in less than 24. That's about the same amount (240mm) in 22h that caused a devastating flood in the Ahr valley in Germany in 2018. But ...
First: those drainage systems in mid range mountains have a huge catchment area and channel the water that runs off on the surface (is not stored in soil, for instance because that's already soaked) in river courses of various types.
Second: water running of in riverbeds of various narrowness, depth and slope has much more energy than the standing water we see in the images from Dubai. This creates erosion and even landslides, a mixture of water, mud, rocks, foliage up to trees, and further on parts of the infratsructure, technology, stone constructions ground to pieces and sadly animals and humans as "clasts".
So these are events in regimes of different energies involved, the outcome can't really be compared even without the usually unavoidable blaming of ... well whoever is to blame :-)
Stay safe evrybody
p.s.: Am not allowed to post links so tried to give info for own search.
waito is right, cloud seeding was not involved here, besides its effectiveness being discussed controversally (depends on study ...), does not create rain just like that. Its intention is to cause clouds that have already formed and are in pre-stages of storms or potentially heavy rain (like the castellanus or congestus families) to condense and release their water prematurely, changing amount and place of rainfall.
The UAE do try to use its effects in a "weather enhancement program" (changing the place of the rainfall) to receive more rain that would otherwise just pass over as highly humid air or clouds. But as the UAE meterological office NCM said and reported by several news sites to debunk an earlier Bloomberg report, there were no cloud seeding operations at that time. That was a completely natural phenomenon.
It was said upthread that in Europe an equal amount of rain would have caused more damage. Well saidly that's true, but it has nothing to do with local (dis-)ingenuity!
Reports have it that in some places 250mm/m^2 of rain fell in less than 24. That's about the same amount (240mm) in 22h that caused a devastating flood in the Ahr valley in Germany in 2018. But ...
First: those drainage systems in mid range mountains have a huge catchment area and channel the water that runs off on the surface (is not stored in soil, for instance because that's already soaked) in river courses of various types.
Second: water running of in riverbeds of various narrowness, depth and slope has much more energy than the standing water we see in the images from Dubai. This creates erosion and even landslides, a mixture of water, mud, rocks, foliage up to trees, and further on parts of the infratsructure, technology, stone constructions ground to pieces and sadly animals and humans as "clasts".
So these are events in regimes of different energies involved, the outcome can't really be compared even without the usually unavoidable blaming of ... well whoever is to blame :-)
Stay safe evrybody
p.s.: Am not allowed to post links so tried to give info for own search.
Tabs please !
This appears to be an urban legend, see for instance the well-documented discussion here.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Usually firmly on the ground
Posts: 146
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
2 Posts
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Age: 63
Posts: 1,257
Received 168 Likes
on
103 Posts
B Fraser
When you land in DXB at night you used to be able to see lines of Orange flashing lights of the sewage trucks queuing on the roads to the sewage plant. Indeed some of the drivers hit on the idea of not going to the sewage plant and associated wait, and instead off loaded their cargo into the creek which as more started to do it really messed up the place. I believe this practice has stopped now, but the majority of sewage in Dubai is still removed by truck for processing.
Cheers
Mr Mac
When you land in DXB at night you used to be able to see lines of Orange flashing lights of the sewage trucks queuing on the roads to the sewage plant. Indeed some of the drivers hit on the idea of not going to the sewage plant and associated wait, and instead off loaded their cargo into the creek which as more started to do it really messed up the place. I believe this practice has stopped now, but the majority of sewage in Dubai is still removed by truck for processing.
Cheers
Mr Mac
https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/dub...-cloud-seeding
Tabs please !
B Fraser
When you land in DXB at night you used to be able to see lines of Orange flashing lights of the sewage trucks queuing on the roads to the sewage plant. Indeed some of the drivers hit on the idea of not going to the sewage plant and associated wait, and instead off loaded their cargo into the creek which as more started to do it really messed up the place. I believe this practice has stopped now, but the majority of sewage in Dubai is still removed by truck for processing.
Cheers
Mr Mac
When you land in DXB at night you used to be able to see lines of Orange flashing lights of the sewage trucks queuing on the roads to the sewage plant. Indeed some of the drivers hit on the idea of not going to the sewage plant and associated wait, and instead off loaded their cargo into the creek which as more started to do it really messed up the place. I believe this practice has stopped now, but the majority of sewage in Dubai is still removed by truck for processing.
Cheers
Mr Mac
EPC contractors sought for Dubai's £17bn sewer tunnels project | Ground Engineering (geplus.co.uk)
Here's that convoy in daylight.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Usually firmly on the ground
Posts: 146
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
2 Posts
The page I linked to suggests the reality is rather more nuanced than the implication that "the idiots forgot to design any provision at all for wastewater treatment", though.
But (according to a colleague who was there) they didn't follow the dredging contractors recommendations for overburden when they did the land reclamation for the Burj. And the reclained land is settling....
'Honey trucks' are common across the Emirates. Needn't smell any worse than a Thames Water treatment plant......
'Honey trucks' are common across the Emirates. Needn't smell any worse than a Thames Water treatment plant......
Tabs please !
I presume you mean the Burj al Arab which is a different building altogether. I haven't noticed any issues in buildings on other man made islands, other than the drains are full of sand..
