Transient vertical jet fire releases from thermally ruptured propane tanks

Book · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:404318

Ye, Z; Birk, A M ^[1]

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1. Queen`s Univ., Kingston, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

A series of tests were recently conducted to study the Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE). The tests involved 400 liter propane tanks filled to approximately 80% capacity with propane. The tanks were brought to failure using a combination of JP4 pool fire and/or propane torch fires. Several different types of failure modes were observed during the tests including both BLEVEs and finite failures resulting in transient jet releases. This paper considers only those tests that ended with a finite failure after which a transient, two-phase, vertical jet release and fire was observed. This two-phase jet fire release resulted in significant fire and thermal radiation hazards. In this paper the two-phase jet fire releases will be quantified and described in terms of the failure size and the thermal condition of the propane at the time when the tank failed. A model for describing the jet fire release will be described and results will be compared with measured data. The model includes predictions of tank pressure decay, 2-phase jet mass flow rate, jet fire length, and thermal radiation from vertical jet fires to remote targets.

• OSTI ID: 404318
• Report Number(s): CONF-960706--; ISBN 0-7918-1780-6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
GAS SPILLS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PROPANE
RUPTURES
STORAGE
TANKS
THEORETICAL DATA
TRANSPORT
TWO-PHASE FLOW