Citation

Chai JH, Lv ZJ, Shen ZX, Huan HD, Zhang XL, Zhang ZJ, Xu B. J. Forensic Sci. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14714

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In December 2019, a buffer tank burst accident occurred in the maintenance of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bus in China. Failure analysis revealed the bus-mounted buffer tank had been subjected to an excessive internal pressurization, although the tank material met the specifications for engineering practice. The physical evidence related to the failed tank showed that a chemical explosion was impossible. As water was used to pouring the frozen pipeline prior to the accident, according to the consequences observed, the rapid phase transition (RPT) explosion of the residual LNG due to external heat from water was regarded as the main causation of incident. The explosion energy was inversely estimated by the TNT equivalent method, and the rapid expansion of natural gas produced excessive pressure, thus causing the buffer tank to explode.

Keywords: Pipeline transportation

Language: en

Keywords

buffer tank; explosion energy; failure analysis; freezing; liquefied natural gas bus; rapid phase transition