Experimental investigation of LPG-releasing processes with varied damage sizes on a pressurized vessel

Mi Zhou, Shuhao Ma and Naiqiang Zhang

Energy, 2023, vol. 276, issue C

Abstract: The presented experimental study was launched based on the LPG explosion accident near the city of Wenling, China, in June 2020. Multiple measurement methods have been coordinated in the experiments to capture different parameters. The damage size on the vessel is varied with replaceable rupture modules. The results show that the size of the damage is a decisive factor for distinguishing the outcome of the gas-releasing processes from a continuous discharging to a blowdown depressurization. The optical measurement illustrates the distributions of the released gas and indicates a much higher explosion potential of blowdown depressurization than continuous discharging. The experimental results confirm the rapid temperature drop due to the LPG-releasing, which has led to the embrittlement of the structure materials and was able to enlarge the damage size of the LPG tank. This new finding can largely increase the damage size on the tank and change the release process to blowdown depressurization. The damage escalation on the pressurized tank due to gas-release processes reveals the mechanism causing the disintegration of the tank as well as the severe explosion in the Wenling accident. According to the results, low alloy steel is not recommended for the structural material of LPG tanks.

Keywords: LPG storage Safety; LPG tank; Fluid-structure interaction; Blowdown depressurization; Damage escalation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223009684
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:276:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223009684

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127574

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().