(43a) Elongated VCE Blast Waves and Structural Damage
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2017
2017 Spring Meeting and 13th Global Congress on Process Safety
Global Congress on Process Safety
Fires, Explosions, and Reactive Chemicals II
Monday, March 27, 2017 - 3:30pm to 4:00pm
This paper summarizes recent work to define the characteristics associated with elongated congested volume VCEs and identify differences relative to standard VCEs involving compact congested volume geometries. The main conclusions from this work with regard to the blast wave shape for an elongated congested volume deflagration are: 1) the blast wave behaves as an acoustic wave along the long axis, 2) the blast wave has a very quick transition from the positive phase peak pressure to the negative phase peak pressure (i.e., quick relative to the positive phase duration), and 3) the magnitude of the pressure drop between the peak positive and negative pressures diminishes quickly with distance outside the congested volume. These observations are not consistent with the behavior of a compact congested volume geometry VCE blast wave.
Deflagration and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) regimes were also identified for unconfined elongated congested volume VCEs as a function of the normalized flame travel distance and flame speed. These regimes were verified with existing test data, including data from the on-going RPSEA test program. These observations and the DDT regime identification provide a frame of reference to develop a better understanding of elongated congested volume VCEs.
Generic structures, with properties typical of conventional construction, were analyzed to illustrate the effect of the elongated congested volume VCE blast loads on structural response. The results presented in the paper show that, for an elongated congested volume VCE, a high flame speed deflagration may result in more severe structural response in the near-field than for a detonation (i.e., due to a DDT). These results provide an alternative near-field damage indicator analysis approach for the investigation of elongated congested volume VCE incidents.
Checkout
This paper has an Extended Abstract file available; you must purchase the conference proceedings to access it.
Do you already own this?
Log In for instructions on accessing this content.
Pricing
Individuals
AIChE Pro Members | $150.00 |
AIChE Graduate Student Members | Free |
AIChE Undergraduate Student Members | Free |
AIChE Explorer Members | $225.00 |
Non-Members | $225.00 |