Frozen pipes don't break at the point where the ice is formed. Why not?

[amoda]

I was just wondering due to the fact of the amazing wheather we had (-35celecius) and then a snow storm why frozen pipes don't break at the point where the ice is formed. Also any1 have any tips for making sure that the oil tank outside our house dosent get its pipe broken? Thanks!

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The oil has a different freezing point, I don't know what. You might want to check. I would suggest (if necessary) to have some way for pressure to get out. Perhaps you could make a chamber up above the pipe to let the oil go up when the pressure is high. That is, unless the oil is under pressure.

They don't break right where the ice is is because that is not the weakest point. The pressure builds until the weak point breaks

[YT2095]

Usualy at a connection joint or a bend.

as for Oil, the worst case is that it will go waxy and become a solid, it will not expand on freezing like water does

[JaKiri]

Water is a very very odd substance. Because of the way it bonds, it expands on freezing, unlike everything else, which contracts.

 

It's the reason that the seas are liquid, and the land is solid. If water had the same properties of, well, anything else, the seas would be solid.

[mossoi]

The seas (or any body of water) would freeze from the bottom up. Interesting to think of the effects that this would have on EVERYTHING terrestrial!

[Sayonara]

mossoi said in post # :

The seas (or any body of water) would freeze from the bottom up.

Think about that.

 

Where do you see ice forming in an ice cube tray, or on a pond? Ice floats because it is less dense than water.

[JaKiri]

Sayonara³ said in post # :

Think about that.

 

Where do you see ice forming in an ice cube tray, or on a pond? Ice floats because it is less dense than water.

 

He probably was referring to my post.

[Sayonara]

How would that make more sense?

[JaKiri]

Sayonara³ said in post # :

How would that make more sense?

 

(If water acted like a regular substance) the seas would freeze from the bottom etc. makes perfect sense to me.

[Sayonara]

OIC, that certainly makes more sense.

 

Ignore me mossoi

 

 

Do you remember that "Focus" pop science magazine? I had a letter published in that when I was 13 or something. It was "why does water expand when it freezes?", and they put a picture of an iceberg next to the question.

 

:proud:

 

 

God how I wish I was drunk right now.

[JaKiri]

That's a thought.

 

GUINNESS

[Radical Edward]

I think I will have a beer too.

[amoda]

i was also referring to any kind of pipe. A drain pipe perhaps or anythings else. i'll tell you my position so it might get easier to explain. I was walking around my neighborhood and there is a house that has a small pipe coming out of the front side of the house to the back (no idea whats it for) and i noticed that it had alot of ice built on it and that it had cracked. But the points that it had cracked in aren't the places where most of the ice is built up.

[JaKiri]

amoda said in post # :

i was also referring to any kind of pipe. A drain pipe perhaps or anythings else. i'll tell you my position so it might get easier to explain. I was walking around my neighborhood and there is a house that has a small pipe coming out of the front side of the house to the back (no idea whats it for) and i noticed that it had alot of ice built on it and that it had cracked. But the points that it had cracked in aren't the places where most of the ice is built up.

 

Most exterior ice will be because of frozen dew, or what have you. The freezing that damages in inside the pipe.

 

 

Probably.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Definitely. Outside the pipe, it might just bend it.