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Organisationseinheit der BAM
Industrial fire and explosion hazards due to accidents in fuel storage units have gained a considerable attention in recent years. Both, the regulatory bodies and scientific communities are heavily concerned about the proper safety measures to avoid such calamities in the future. This paper aims to bring some essentials related to the hazards that arose from recent fuel storage fire accidents occurring in Buncefield, UK (2005), Puerto Rico, USA (2009) and Sitapura, India (2009). The potential similarities behind occurrence of these accidents are studied. The applicability of various methods (models) and also computer simulations to estimate the safety distances according to the international standards for both explosion and fire hazard are verified. The overpressures caused by the Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCE) and radiation fluxes emitted by the fires are considered for respective explosion and fire hazard estimations. The prime focus is placed on the regulations laid down by the National Fire Protection Agency of the United States and the European Norms.
Amuay refinery disaster (2012) is another recent example of Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) and fire accidents preceded by Buncefield (2005), Puerto-Rico (2009) and Jaipur (2009), respectively [9]. The incident has left many safety issues behind which must be repeatedly addressed. Unfortunately, the lessons taught by previous similar events are just not understood carefully. It reveals that the proper safety measures for such facilities were either underestimated or were not accounted seriously. Consequently, the resulting overpressures from explosion and the subsequent thermal radiation from tank fires have once again proved to be disastrous to both mankind and infrastructure. This article highlights the aftermaths of Amuay incident and addresses the challenges put forward by it. Furthermore, a comparative study is performed between such incidents to analyze the similarities and how they could have been avoided.
Fire and explosion hazards associated with storage and transportation of flammable materials have been a matter of great interest in the recent times. BLEVE is a scenario that occurs when a closed fuel container is subjected to heat for a longer duration. Such events are disastrous to human beings and assets both. In the past there have been numerous studies on BLEVEs and fireballs of hydrocarbon fuels, e.g. kerosene, gasoline, LPG, LNG and others. Though, the fireballs of peroxy-fuels are not looked into detail as such. This article tries to overcome this lack of knowledge. Both, experimental investigation and CFD simulations are performed to measure and predict the fireball characteristics of a peroxy-fuel. Due to thermal decomposition in the liquid phase and active oxygen content a peroxy-fuel fireball burns at a very fast rate and emit higher thermal radiation whereas exhibits smaller diameter and elevation compared to hydrocarbons. That eventually leads to consideration of larger safety distances from them which are also verified by CFD results.
More than 5 million non-electric detonators are used annually in Germany for blasting operations. The relative usage of non-electric detonators amounts to about 50% of all civil blasting operations in Germany. BAM, as the notified body for explosives in Germany, tests non-electric detonators for the purpose of EU-type approval under the civil explosives directive, but also in the context of general investigations, e.g. when misfiring occurs. BAM has all facilities to test these detonators according to the European standard EN 13763. The presentation will cover the test facilities of BAM and address some issues of delay time accuracy. Several advantages and disadvantages of the non-electric ignition system will be discussed in the context of case investigations, and conclusions for mining operations and the advoidance of misfiring will be drawn.
Autoclave methods are commonly used when pressure progress under thermal stress is of interest. One of them is the mini-autoclave method by Kühner AG. To test the robustness of the equipment under powerful exposure, two known high energetic materials, DNT and TNT, were investigated. The sample mass was increased stepwise in the range from 0.25 g to 1.0 g. For one test (1 g TNT), gas burners instead of the usually employed 2-zone heating block, were used to intensify the test conditions. Results showed the expected slower pressure generation of DNT in comparison to TNT. The mechanical robustness of the apparatus could be approved in all runs. Pressure data were used to calculate the energy release of decomposition. The values were in good agreement with the heat of decomposition, estimated by DSC.
The mixture of ammonium nitrate (AN) prills and fuel oil (FO), usually referred to as ANFO, is extensively used in the mining industry as a bulk explosive. One of the major performance predictors of ANFO mixtures is the fuel oil retention, which is itself governed by the complex pore structure of the AN prills. In this study, we present how X-ray computed tomography (XCT), and the associated advanced data processing workflow, can be used to fully characterise the structure and morphology of AN prills. We show that structural parameters such as volume fraction of the different phases and morphological parameters such as specific surface area and shape factor can be reliably extracted from the XCT data, and that there is a good agreement with the measured oil retention values. Importantly, oil retention measurements (qualifying the efficiency of ANFO as explosives) correlate well with the specific surface area determined by XCT. XCT can therefore be employed non-destructively; it can accurately evaluate and characterise porosity in ammonium nitrate prills, and even predict their efficiency.