Why do fire hydrants not freeze and burst in the winter? The water is theoretically above the freezing line, no?
In: Engineering
I’m sure the pipe could withstand freezing. This is just a quick recall from memory so I’m sure their might be errors. Water can not freeze if it doesn’t have the space to expand. An increase in pressure drops the freezing point. As the water starts to expand, the pressure held back in the pipe restricts the water from forming ice. This might also correlate with waters boiling point at different altitudes, which IIRC, is also pressure related.
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