Nezha's fire + Ao Bing's ice = steam explosion?

Review expert: Zhou Hongzhi, senior experimenter and master's supervisor at the School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beijing University of Technology

In the movie "Nezha 2", Nezha and Ao Bing teamed up to break through the Tianyuan Ding. The scene was shocking and impressive. Behind this, there is actually a scientific principle about steam.

Let's look at how the Tianyuan Ding exploded from a scientific perspective. The sealed Tianyuan Ding is like a giant pressure cooker. When Nezha's Samadhi True Fire and Ao Bing's Mystic Ice met in the Tianyuan Ding, a large amount of steam was instantly generated, causing the pressure inside the Ding to rise sharply, exceeding the bearing capacity of the Ding wall, causing the Tianyuan Ding to undergo plastic deformation and eventually cause an explosion.

The power of steam plays an important role in the progress of human civilization. In the age of digitalization and informatization, has steam technology become outdated?

The source of steam power

Steam is also called "water vapor". In addition to humidification and heating, it can also generate power and drive machines. According to the pressure and temperature, various steam can be classified into saturated steam and superheated steam.

Saturated steam is steam at 100 degrees Celsius under atmospheric pressure. However, superheated steam is different. Under high temperature and high pressure closed conditions, the temperature of high temperature steam can be between 200 and 600 degrees Celsius, and the pressure range can also reach between 10 bar and 200 bar, that is, about 10 kg to 200 kg of pressure will be generated per square centimeter. At this time, the energy of high temperature and high pressure steam is very large, and once the operation is wrong, serious consequences will occur.

When ice and fire meet, the solid ice will not only melt quickly into water under high temperature, but will also directly form high-temperature steam, and the volume will expand rapidly. In a certain container, this expansion will release huge pressure and generate powerful steam power. This pressure will continue to increase in a closed environment, and if it is not relieved in time, it will explode.

Is steam technology obsolete?

Of course not, steam technology still plays an important role in many fields.

In the field of power generation, steam turbines are still the main power plant. Nuclear power plants use the heat generated by nuclear reactors to heat steam and drive steam turbines to generate electricity. The application of supercritical steam technology has significantly improved the efficiency of thermal power generation.

In industrial production, steam is widely used in heating, drying, disinfection and other processes. Sterilization in the food industry, dyeing in the textile industry, and reaction heating in chemical production all rely on steam.

Steam also plays an important role in the medical field. High-temperature steam is widely used to sterilize medical equipment and laboratory instruments to ensure a sterile environment and reduce the risk of cross infection.

Not only that, steam has a wider range of applications, from daily life to cutting-edge technology.

From household steam irons, steam cleaners, to steam beauty devices, the application of steam makes life more convenient and comfortable. For example, steam can remove odors from clothes. This is because steam has strong permeability and diffusion, and can quickly penetrate into the tiny gaps in clothes, taking out odor molecules and diluting them in the air.

Supercritical power generation units, nuclear reactors, cutting-edge material manufacturing and aerospace technology breakthroughs are applications of steam technology in cutting-edge technology.

From steam locomotives and steam ships during the Industrial Revolution to modern power plants, urban central heating, and the launch of aircraft on conventional aircraft carriers, steam technology is a very important part. With the advancement of science and technology, steam technology is also constantly developing and innovating, showing strong vitality and application potential, and continuing to contribute to the development of human society.