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Re:Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies by gnode on Friday August 31, 2018 @09:28AM (#17885378)
I imagine a problem with that solution is that most of the time, the solid isn't behaving as a liquid. The partitions / baffles may complicate unloading, as you can't just pipe the solid out; a conveyor belt is typically used.
Re:Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies by MPSimmons on Friday August 31, 2018 @10:31AM (#17885877)
Can we intentionally liquifact the solid into a liquid?

Also, we can have articulated baffles that raise into place from below, cutting into the solid material.

I think this is a solvable problem.

Re:Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies by VLM on Friday August 31, 2018 @10:47AM (#17885996)
But, if the engineering and financial cost of "fixing" transport is higher than the cost of simply moving the bauxite processing plant to the bauxite instead of moving the bauxite to the plant...

Murphys Law is someone will put an aluminum smelter pot on a nuclear powered ship, during a storm the molten cryolite will slosh out of the pot freezing onto one side of the ship, sinking the ship, and we're right back to where we started.

Re:Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies by gnode on Friday August 31, 2018 @11:12AM (#17886200)
> articulated baffles that raise into place from below

From where below? My understanding is that the bottom of the tank is the hull.

Although possibly you could put baffles in place, tip the grain, then crane them out for unloading.

Re:Cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies by donarb on Friday August 31, 2018 @02:26PM (#17887778)
Yanking the baffles out of the hold while the material is still there would be next to impossible. You have tons of weight pressing on them from all sides, not counting the weight of the baffle itself.