Pressure situation

[Purplehaze]

Here's the situation:
a block of cheese has steel tubes injected through it
in the following pattern

-------------
| o o o |
| o o |
| o o o |
| |
|------------|

This block is then subjected to a pressure of 40psi equally
on all sides.
After several hours and the block is removed from the pressure, oil deposits are noticed at the cheese/pipe interfaces. These oil deposits are later analyzed and
found to have come from the cheese.

What principle(s) explain why the liquid has developed only at the cheese/pipe interface?
Your help/ideas are appreciated.

 

[Mark31]

This question is way too silly and must be a uni assignment. Only a uni lecturer could have dreamed this one up! Haha

 

[Purplehaze]

Honest to god, this is a real-life problem (or part there of)..

I work for a major dairy manufacturer, and in one of our products mechanical holes are needed to be made for uniformity purposes.

I was asking this question for my own knowledge and reasoning.....though it may sound silly to some.

 

[saxon]

purplehaze, What happens when you put a rod thru a saturated sponge, then squeeze it? The same principle is at work here. Fluid is forced to coalesce,drops out due to increased pressure, migrates to interface surface and is transported along this interface.

Hope this helps.
saxon

 

[JOM]

Purplehaze,

>I work for a major dairy manufacturer, and in one of our >products mechanical holes are needed to be made for >uniformity purposes.


You making Swiss cheese?

Cheers,
John.