Can a 3000 degree Olympic Flame safely burn inside an Airtight Indoor Domed Stadium?

[SlickFranky]

I wanted to have a candle on my desk, so I installed a retractable roof section in my living room. I had no other option really. The candle burns at nearly 1400 °C, and the ceiling is only about 6 feet above it.

[Glazier Man]

Originally Posted by towerguy3

There's a problem facing organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics here in Vancouver.

The Opening and Closing and Medal Ceremonies are in BC Place Stadium which is a 60,000 seat air supported dome built in 1982:

http://www.bcplacestadium.com

in much the same design as the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Organizers want to have the Olympic Flame burning inside the dome, but the Flame's temperature can run as high as 3000 degrees.

The solution appears to be a Retractable Roof which will allow venting of heat and fumes, but there is some reluctance to go to this extent.

Some feel that a HVAC system can safely suck out the fumes and pollutants from the inside of the dome. Yet that same air is critical to keep the roof aloft.

Remember that the building is almost airtight with some ventilation through ducts on the roof. The revolving doors that you pass through to enter are there to help keep the air in and roof up.

So how do you engineer a system to suck air out containing fumes and pollutants and at the same time suck enough air in to keep the roof from deflating?

Another concern, and I think this is more serious, is the flame's heat and its effect on the teflon roof. Hot air rises. A natural gas flame can run as high as 3000 degrees.

All that hot air will rise to the top of the dome and cause the dome to expand. If not controlled, it could tear, which is what happened last January, due to different circumstances though.

The Flame will heat up the building and make it very hot and stinky and smelly, so how do you do the air conditioning? And what's to prevent the teflon from burning?

While there is a SnowMelt system in place to allow 140 degree steam to be blown into the roof fabric layers to melt accumulated snow atop, that steam heat is dispersed over 10 acres of fabric.

In the case of the Flame cauldron, the heat will be concentrated on one small area of the roof.

Would not the fumes be noxious? Could the fumes be dangerous? Could there be an explosion?

What are the Fire Marshall's regulations concerning a 3000 degree Flame burning in an Indoor Building with 60,000 people in attendance?

Suggest ideas on how to design a ventilation / heat suppression system to make the Flame work safely indoors without causing the roof to rip and without causing patrons to pass out or get sick from the fumes.

The Olympic Charter says the flame must burn for 17 straight days.

Is a Retractable Roof a better option? What options does a Retractable Roof bring to the table?

Did you ever look at how a hot air ballon goes up and goes down? I would think that the venting that is engineered into the roof design will be adequate and the fact that the heat rises, bringing all the gases with it to the roof lining, I am thinking it will just push...force its way out naturally....

Option 2: cut a small slit in roof material to allow for ventilation.

If the gas from the Olympic Flame doesn't get out, guess people will be passing out from C02 off gas, oh, and rained on, from the condenced air dripping from the roof lining.

Do you think they keep the olympic flame lit when they are bringing it overseas on the Plane?

[drumz0rz]

Originally Posted by towerguy3

Every flame gives off fumes. All the literature I see says that a gas flame will burn at between 2000 and 3000 degrees.

Even burning at 2000 degrees that's 4 times hotter than the hottest your oven will ever get.

Stick your head inside an oven after it's hit 500 degrees and multiply that heat by 4 times.

That's the sort of heat the roof of BC Place will have to be able to withstand over two weeks of burning without tearing or bursting.

The volume of BC Place's interior is 48 million cubic feet. This is an Engineering Discussion. Suggest how all that heat will be disappated.

First off while the entire roof may not get hot...

THE PORTION OF THE ROOF DIRECTLY ABOVE THE FLAME WILL GET THE HEAT.

Hot air rises. What are you suggesting, the air will be cooled by the time it rises 150 feet to meet the teflon? I don't think so.

I'm not as concerned about all 10 acres of the teflon as the portion of the teflon directly above the flame.

I assume you don't have a natural gas range, or have used a bunsen burner in chemestry class. Those both burn at very high temps but you don't see the cabinets above your range catching fire! air has this really bizzare power of requiring a lot of energy to change it's temp, as if it has matter or something.