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snowmakers - I am just curious.... I know that some snowmaking systems chill the water before deploying it, but do any of them chill the compressed air. My idea is obvious; if you chill the air then upon release it should drop in temp like in an air conditioning expansion chamber. Mixed with water it should lower the mix temprature.
Also, is there a system that controls the humidity of the air itself? A drier air would yield different snow.
Also, most systems seem to mix the air and snow near the exit .... is there a system that pre-mixes the air/water and puts it through and expansion chamber before exiting the nozzle? If this were done it owuld lower the temp of the whole mix before exit, provided the air/water mix would remain turbulent enough (induce a vortex in the mix?) until exit.
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Chill the compressed air? Hmm. I dont think so. It is actually the expanding heat that gives a microclimate inside the plume
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Driers are commonly used at many-all ski resorts. The dry air keeps moisture from crystalizing on the inside of pipes and hoses
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An lastly, the air and water is kept separate until the very last moment. Theshorter the distance the mix has to go before expanding, the better. If they were mixed inside the pipelnes, there would be ice buildup on the insides, and so much turbulance that would yield to large nonfreezing drops. This is called spitting.
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Since this is what i did for many years ill bite.
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Snowmakers and POWPOW -ty that was very interesting! My idea about mixing was from opening a chapagne bottle .. I thought that by somehow compressing a water/gas mix, on expansion it would sort of "fizz" and also lower the overall temp due to the expansion on exit.
But is there not another factor in this? I heard that a "seed" is added to the water, so the "snow" has a starter ctstal pattern to make up for the fact the "snow" has not condensed from a cloud or built up around a dust particle. This is an organic/bacterial element, yes?
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air is not subject to the same graviational pull as water.
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If I remember correctly 7 Springs has a higher output than snowshoe and I'm not talking comparitively. They can actually produce more snow in a 24 hour period than sSnowshoe can. The only question I have right now is if they are running the guns for coverage or just as a test???
Now to convince my significantly better half to make a side trip to PA after we visit her parents in Cumberland next weekend. I just got my board back from Willi's here in Fairfax (nice work BTW) I'm mounting my bindings this weekend. Quote:
White Ribbons Of Death (a small sliver of skiable terrain packed with hundreds of skiers to say you are "open")
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