(37b) How to Accurately Predict Thermal Runaway: Experimental Study Involving LAB-Scale and Full-Scale TESTS

Thermal runaway involving chemical reactions can be a complex process, which typically involve an exothermic reaction (i.e., a reaction that gives off heat). This will result in a temperature rise where reaction rates will exponentially increase with temperature. If sufficient cooling is present, the reaction will remain under control; however, if heat generation exceeds the heat loss, then thermal runaway can occur.

This paper will present the experimental methods used to predict the runaway condition from the auto-polymerization of 80% grade of divinylbenzene (DVB80) in ISO-containers on July 14, 2012 when an explosion and ensuring fire significantly damaged the container ship MSC Flaminia that was transporting cargo from the United States to Europe. This paper will discuss how certain investigators used incorrect test methods and erroneously concluded that DVB80 could not violently runaway and that “mild” exotherms were observed. While their test methods on “face” value appeared to take into account elevated temperature conditions, they mistakenly neglected the importance of increased heat loss due to the large surface-area-to-volume ratio inherent in smaller test apparatus. When these tests were repeated with appropriate lab scale calorimetry tests, violent thermal runaway was predicted as well as the time to runaway conditions. To validate the accuracy of the new test, actual full-scale runaway tests were performed with an actual ISO-container. The lab scale calorimetry tests agreed very well with the full-scale ISO-container tests, whereby the time to thermal runaway was very accurately predicted and demonstrated the importance of taking into account scaling issues when investigation runaway conditions.