Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Slippery when wet

Options
  • 30-07-2008 11:05am
    #1
    corblimey
    Registered Users Posts: 4,475 ✭✭✭


    Can anyone explain to me the science behind the fact that the tunnel gets wet when it's raining outside. I can sort of understand rain, etc being brought in car tyres and stuff, but yesterday morning after the few days of torrential rain, there were puddles building in the middle of the tunnel. Also, shouldn't the wetness kinda 'fade out' after a short distance, like when you drive through a puddle, there's tyre tracks but they stop as the wheels dry.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Jumpy
    Registered Users Posts: 7,606 ✭✭✭Jumpy


    Water flows downhill.


  • Options
    #3
    corblimey
    Registered Users Posts: 4,475 ✭✭✭corblimey


    Jumpy wrote: »
    Water flows downhill.

    Seriously? There's enough surface water brought in on tyres and that to warrant a 'flow'?


  • Options
    #4
    Stark
    Registered Users Posts: 20,991 ✭✭✭✭Stark


    Water falls from the sky. Then it flows downhill.


  • Options
    #5
    corblimey
    Registered Users Posts: 4,475 ✭✭✭corblimey


    Stark wrote: »
    Water falls from the sky.
    Witchcraft!

    Actually, I suppose that makes sense.


  • Options
    #6
    deRanged
    Registered Users Posts: 3,744 ✭✭✭deRanged


    All the concrete/tarmac area catches water but doesn't let it drain. it has to flow down - so there's a huge surface area funneling water into the tunnel, both bores, both sides. Then cars are tracking it in, tens of thousands of cars remember.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    dulpit
    Registered Users Posts: 10,959 ✭✭✭✭dulpit


    Jumpy wrote: »
    Water flows downhill.

    This ++;

    What else could happen??? Of course it flows in, esp. with the amount of cars flying through too...


  • Options
    #8
    Tree
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 4,708 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tree


    The drains have been known to back up in the tunnell too. Puddles w/ no apparent origin by drains.


  • Options
    #9
    corblimey
    Registered Users Posts: 4,475 ✭✭✭corblimey


    dulpit wrote: »
    This ++;

    What else could happen??? Of course it flows in, esp. with the amount of cars flying through too...

    I guess I never considered the slope in and out of the tunnel to be steep enough for surface water to 'flow' in. But deRanged's explanation that there's nowhere else for the rain to go makes some sense.


  • Options
    #10
    Dee369369
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭Dee369369


    Doesn't seem so steep when you drive through it but when i walked it the day they opened it(years ago now!) it's pretty steep.
    Anyway what a weird thing to be thinking :confused::D


  • Options
    #11
    Colonel_McCoy
    Registered Users Posts: 751 ✭✭✭Colonel_McCoy


    Poor design!


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    chuci
    Closed Accounts Posts: 938 ✭✭✭chuci


    why did they make it slanted in the first place?


  • Options
    #13
    Pi^2
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 137 ✭✭Pi^2


    why did they make it slanted in the first place?

    Eh well. either side of the tunnel is above sea level, and tunnells tend to be resting on the sea bed. So naturally the tunnnel must go from x metres above sea level down to hte seabed and then back up to y metres above sea level on the otherside. Hence the curve.


  • Options
    #14
    mawk
    Registered Users Posts: 2,738 ✭✭✭mawk


    Pi^2 wrote: »
    Eh well. either side of the tunnel is above sea level, and tunnells tend to be resting on the sea bed. So naturally the tunnnel must go from x metres above sea level down to hte seabed and then back up to y metres above sea level on the otherside. Hence the curve.


    Zing.


Advertisement