TY - CONF A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Prabhakaran, A. A1 - Robitaille, A. A1 - Birk, A. M. A1 - Gonzalez III, F. T1 - Rail tank car total containment fire testing: results and observations T2 - Proceedings of the 2016 joint rail conference (JRC2016-5833) N2 - The frequent incidences of Non-Accident Releases (NARs) of lading from tank cars have resulted in an increasing interest in transporting hazardous materials in total Containment conditions (i.e., no pressure relief devices). T2 - Proceedings of the 2016 joint rail conference CY - Columbia, SC, USA DA - 12.04.2016 KW - Rail tank containment fire PY - 2016 SN - 978-0-7918-4967-5 SP - 1 EP - 8 AN - OPUS4-35772 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gonzalez III, F. A1 - Prabhakaran, A. A1 - Robitaille, A. A1 - Booth, G. A1 - Birk, A.M. A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Rail tank car total containment fire testing: planning & test development T2 - JRC2015 - Joint rail conference (Proceedings) N2 - Given the frequent incidences of Non-Accident Releases (NARs) of hazardous materials from tank cars, there in an increasing interest in transporting hazardous materials in total containment conditions (i.e., no pressure relief devices). However, the ability of tank cars to meet thermal protection requirements provided in the Code of Federal Regulations under conditions of total containment has not been established. Also, the modeling tool commonly used by industry to evaluate thermal protection, AFFTAC, has not been validated under these conditions. The intent of this effort was to evaluate through a series of third-scale fire tests, the ability of tank cars to meet the thermal protection requirements under total containment conditions, and also, to validate AFFTAC for such conditions. This paper describes the test design and planning effort associated with this research, including the design and evaluation of a fire test setup to simulate a credible, fully engulfing, pool fire that is consistent and repeatable, and the design and hydro-static testing of a third-scale tank specimen. The fire design includes controls on the spatial distribution and temperature variation of the flame temperature, the heat flux, and the radiative balance, to best reflect large liquid hydrocarbon pool fire conditions that may be experienced during derailment scenarios. T2 - JRC2015 - Joint rail conference CY - San Jose, CA, USA DA - 23.03.2015 PY - 2015 SP - 5764, 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-32985 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Birk, A. M. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Gonzales, F. A1 - Borch, Jörg-Peter A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Bisby, L. A1 - Prabhakaran, A. T1 - Fire Testing of Total Containment Pressure Vessels N2 - In North America certain hazardous materials are transported in rail tank cars that must be able to survive an engulfing liquid hydrocarbon pool fire for 100 minutes without rupture. To meet this requirement these tanks are normally equipped with pressure relief valves (PRV) and some form of thermal insulation or thermal protection (TP). These tanks sometimes have non-accident releases (NAR) due to unwanted activation of, or leakage from the pressure relief valves (PRV). These NARs are a nuisance for Industry and for this reason, the industry now wants to remove the PRVs from certain tanks. This is known as total containment and is common practice in Europe. However, Europe does not have a 100 minute fire survival requirement. This paper is about a series of fire tests of 1/3 rd linear scale US DOT 111 Tanks cars. The 2.4 m3 vessels were subjected to fully engulfing fires generated by liquid propane fueled burners. T2 - Loss of prevention CY - Freiburg, Germany DA - 06.06.2016 KW - Hazmat tanks KW - Fire testing KW - Integrity PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-37915 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Birk, A. M. A1 - Bisby, L. T1 - Novel equipment for the study of pressure vessel response to fire N2 - Pressurisation of full-containment pressure vessels in fire is known to be driven by thermal stratification. The predominant mode of heat transfer to the contents (convection from the shell to the liquid phase) results in formation of „hot“ boundary layers. Sub-cooled boiling may also be present. The warm layer rises to the surface through buoyancy and bubble flow, increasing the surface of the liquid above that of the bulk temperature, and hence driving a pressure rise. For reliable prediction of the complex effects governing vessel pressurization a three-dimensional numerical model is required. Work is being undertaken on such a model by other institutions in cooperation with this project. T2 - ASME 2016 CY - Phoenix, Arizona, USA DA - 11.11.2016 KW - Vessels KW - Novel equipment PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-38433 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bradley, Ian A1 - Scarponi, G. E. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Birk, A. M. T1 - An overview of test standards and regulations relevant to the fire testing of pressure vessels JF - Process safety and environmental protection N2 - Fire exposure of storage and transportation vessels of hazardous materials (including pressure liquefied gases) can result in BLEVEs and other high-consequence incidents with large societal and economic impacts. To reduce risk most countries have numerous regulations, codes of practice and guidance notes covering the design, operation and maintenance of vessels and thermal protection systems. Yet despite such regulations there remains no internationally accepted fire test procedure for pressure vessel and accompanying thermal protection systems that is capable of meeting a range of regulatory requirements. This paper considers some of the regulations in place in the western world and considers the origin of these based on large and medium-scale testing conducted to date. It examines conditions found in these tests to propose a set of recommendations on which to base a standard method of test. These recommendations are proposed as being representative of a credible large pool fire scenario that may occur. KW - LPG KW - Pressure vessel KW - Test KW - BLEVE KW - Fire PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2020.07.047 SN - 0957-5820 VL - 145 SP - 150 EP - 156 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-51139 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Scarponi, G. E. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Cozzani, V. A1 - Birk, A. M. T1 - Experimental Analysis of a Pressurized Vessel Exposed to Fires: an Innovative Representative Scale Apparatus T2 - Chemical Engineering Transactions N2 - A novel deign of test equipment has been commissioned to investigate thermal stratification and boiling during fire exposure of pressure vessels. Extensive temperature measurements and video of the internal conditions during fire exposure are possible, and the equipment has been designed for future compatibility with laser-based velocity measurement techniques. It is expected to generate data large quantities of data that will be of use in validation of two- and three-dimensional CFD models for the prediction of pressure vessel behaviour in fire. Future work will seek to characterize the boundary layer conditions in detail for a range of test fluids, fill levels and fire-induced thermal boundary conditions. Initial tests undertaken during commissioning may indicate that fire exposure of the vessel wall just above the liquid level can have a notable influence on the pressurization rate, by increasing the degree of superheat. Further experimental and modelling work is required to confirm and quantify this effect, or to rebut this conclusion. T2 - ICH 13th International Conference on Chemical and Process Engineering CY - Milan, Italy DA - 28.05.2017 KW - Representative Scale Apparatus KW - Pressurized Vessel, KW - Fire PY - 2017 VL - 57 SP - 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-40663 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Scarponi, G. E. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Cozzani, V. A1 - Birk, A. M. T1 - Experimental analysis of a pressurized N2 - Test equipment has been commissioned and proven to work.Initial data on temperatures, and pressurization rates have been collected and are now under analysis. The level of detail of the measurements is suitable for CFD validation. Initial PIV studies were undertaken to measure the velocity field. T2 - ICH 13th International Conference on Chemical and Process Engineering CY - Milan, Italy DA - 28.05.2017 KW - Fire KW - pressurized vessel KW - Representative scale apparatus PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-40665 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Birk, A. M. A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Bisby, L. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Borch, Jörg T1 - Optical Access Pressure Vessel for Observing Temperature Stratification and Boiling in a Pressure Vessel Exposed to Accidental Fire N2 - We are interested in accidental fire impingement of HazMat pressure vessels. Want to develop improved models for predicting time to failure or empty (if PRV present). We are still trying to properly predict pressurization and time to first PRV activation due to liquid temperature stratification for a range of fire scenarios (Full and partial engulfing pool fire, jet fires, with roll over, with TP defects, etc.) T2 - Optical Access PV for Fire Effects Research CY - Berlin, Germany KW - Vessels KW - Observing temperatur KW - Accidential Fire PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57565 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Birk, A. M. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Gonzales, F. A1 - Prabhakaran, A. A1 - Borch, Jörg-Peter A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Bisby, L. ED - de Rademaeker, E. ED - Schmelzer, P. T1 - Fire testing of total containment pressure vessels T2 - Chemical Engineering Transactions N2 - Full engulfment fire tests have been conducted on total containment pressure vessels filled to 50% and 98 % capacity with water. The tests included an unprotected tank and tanks with two different levels of thermal protection. Total containment in this context means there was no pressure relief device. The tests were conducted with 1/3rd linear scale rail tank cars similar to the DOT 111 tank cars used in North America. The 2.4 m3 model tanks were subjected to 100 % engulfing fires fuelled by liquid propane. The fire heat flux was approximately 80 % by radiation and 20 % by convection with a total heat flux to a cool surface of approximately 100 kW/m2. T2 - 15th International Symposium on loss prevention and safety promotion (loss 2016) CY - Freiburg, Germany DA - 05.06.2016 KW - fire testing KW - hazmat tanks KW - integrity PY - 2016 SN - 978-88-95608-39-6 DO - https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1648047 VL - 48 SP - 277 EP - 282 PB - AIDIC CY - Milano, Italy AN - OPUS4-36361 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bradley, I. A1 - Birk, A.M. A1 - Otremba, Frank A1 - Gonzalez III, F. A1 - Prabhakaran, A. A1 - Bisby, L. T1 - Development and characterisation of an engulfing hydrocarbon pool fire test for hazardous materials pressure vessels T2 - CONFAB 2015 - 1st International conference on structural safety under fire & blast N2 - The US Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) current regulations for rail tank cars in the United States stipulate that, for certain hazardous materials, tank cars shall have a thermal protection system capable of preventing rupture of the tank for 100 minutes when exposed to an engulfing fire with a blackbody equivalent flame temperature of 871 °C (+/- 56°C), and that tanks shall have a pressure relief device set at an appropriate level (depending on the type of tank car and contents). Pressure relief devices are a source of non-accident releases, and hence may cause serious incidents when tanks are transporting hazardous materials. Industry in North America would therefore benefit from removal of pressure relief devices on tanks transporting certain hazardous materials. Such an approach is known as full Containment, and is standard practice in Europe. In 2014 the FRA commissioned an experimental study to investigate the ability of a specific design of rail tank to resist rupture without incorporating a pressure release valve. As a precursor to tests on tanks there was a need to develop and characterise a simulated pool fire capable of reliably exposing large-scale tanks to repeatable, uniform conditions. This paper describes such a fire test setup, developed using a burner array system fuelled by liquid propane and designed to produce luminous, low velocity flames representative of those found in large hydrocarbon pool fires. The experimental set-up is described, along with the Instrumentation (directional flame thermometers, infra-red camera, and thermally massive calorimeter) and methodology used to characterise the fire. Comparisons are made against previous fire tests on vessels to assess the suitability of the experimental set-up for future vessel testing. T2 - CONFAB 2015 - 1st International conference on structural safety under fire & blast CY - Glasgow, UK DA - 02.09.2015 PY - 2015 SP - 485 EP - 494 AN - OPUS4-34545 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -