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BLEVE Scenario Latest Updates

what is the minimum quantity of flammable liquid required to consider a BLEVE scenario for
a vessel..?
15 days ago Ajay Patil and 3 more commented
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4 comments 7 hours ago

André Galvão likes this comment

Patrick Coyle likes this by Delphine Laboureur
BLEVE Scenario: It is very difficult
22 comments • Jump to most recent comments
to model the boilover consequences
as they have been few studies and
measurements about the flame
Ken Patterson • BLEVEs don't happen (except in very special cases) to flammable enlargment. In my...
liquids, they happen to flammable gases stored as liquids under pressure, in a pressure
vessel. Like (1) 8 hours ago

There is no minumum quantity. A standard aerosol can, of the type used for paint, Pradeep Prakash and 2 more
Follow Ken deodorant or hairspray and sold in your local supermarket, will undergo a violent BLEVE commented on:
if heated in a fire. I have a video which shows this - it blows the camera over on its BLEVE Scenario
tripod. This is also why aerosols have been added as a special new category to the 22 comments 8 hours ago
revised Seveso III regulation inside the EU.

Modelling of BLEVEs can be done with a number of commercial software packages and See all updates »
many consultants can advise you. If you want to review the safety precautions required
for safe storage of gases which can cause a BLEVE, one good source of information is
uklpg, the UK Liquified Petroleum Gas trade association. All gases which can undergo a Ads by LinkedIn Members
BLEVE should use LPG standards as a minimum. uklpg publish a series of documents
setting out the standards which should be used. There are similar US publications. One Myanmar: Your Next Market
key thing to remember: never use a bund around an LPG tank! Find investment and partners in
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14 days ago • Like Ergo

Too much time on ppt’s?

Showcase your material and regain your
Dams Temang, M. Sc., P. Eng., CRSP • Ken, time. Request now!
I want to know whether a BLEVE condition can be created for an above ground
pressurized storage vessel (Bullet) operating at say 5 Bar that is located within the
thermal radiation circle of other nearby units? If a BLEVE condition can be created, then Grievance Management
specifically under what thermal radiation condition can this occur: 12.5kW/m2, 9.5 For mining and oil & gas companies to
Follow Dams kW/m2, 6.3 kW/m2, 4.7 kW/m2, 3.2 kW/m2 or 1.6 kW/m2? I don't want to provide achieve their business objectives
Emergency Depressurization on the tank because I don't want to increase the flare load
and I have no way of mounding or burrying the bullet. The hydrocarbon (solvent) being
stored in the vessel is at atmospheric temperature (20 degC at most). There is no
nearby equipment that can create a direct jet fire unto the Bullet i.e. they are located Manager's Choice
further apart such that it is only the thermal radiation effects that reach the Bullet. The
relief on the Bullet is appropriately sized for the fire case. 5th Latin American Conference on
Process Safety
14 days ago • Like
Jing Chen See all »

Muhammad Mudassar Ali - PE • Mr. Ken, I think BLEVE can happen in vessels Top Influencers This Week
with liquid as well, if the vessel internal pressure increases and structure weakens with
the exposure of heat. usually vessel ruptures more quickly if the heat exposure directly Muhammad Mudassar Ali - PE
effects the nonwetted surface of vessel i.e. vapor space. failure time of vessel structure
depends on the trend of ultimate strenght of vessel on increase of heat exposure, this
heat called local peak heat load.
Komal Pujara
Mr. Dams, In your case first you need to calculate the heat input to the vessel surface
based on the head load contour in which vesssel will lie by using the stefen boltzmann
equation then by knowing the duration of heat input, increase of vol of solvent with
temperatur as a function of time and the behavior of vessel metal strength you can find
Himat Khimani , CSP, CMIOSH
out the answer of you question.
It is important to remember that pressure relief system can not prevent BLEVE.

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14 days ago
Delphine Laboureur

Pradeep Prakash • If there is flame impingement hazard then it is unlikely that the
tank will fail from just 12kw/m2 heat flux. In fact if you provide deluge this will be very Arvind Minocha
effective (not effective for jet fires as it still leaves hot spots). You can also do thermal
calculations with likely heat flux using pressure rise and pressure vessel strength
reduction etc. Be aware that BLEVE can occur without fire effect. Sudden failure of vesel
Follow Pradeep for any other reason could create a BLEVE but if the design safety factors are
suffficient, the probability of this happening could be demonstaretde to be low enough
as not be of serious concern.
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Hope this help Director
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13 days ago • Like
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Martin Pitt • In principle a BLEVE can happen with a flammable liquid, if it is STATISTICS
contained in a vessel under pressure as a liquid at a temperature above its boiling point
at ambient. Thus if the pressure was released by vessel failure it would boil explosively.
This is most likely with liquids of relatively low boiling point.
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Ertugrul Alp, PhD, PEng • Although the discussion pertains primarily to flammable
materials, let us not forget that a BLEVE can also occur with any non-flammable
material that is kept as a liquid because it is under pressure. When that pressure is
instantaneously relieved for any reason such as vessel rupture due to any cause (not
only external fire), the "explosive" boiling and the resulting rapid expansion of the flash
Follow Ertugrul fraction is what sets out the pressure waves that we call BLEVE. An example of a non-
flammable material BLEVEing is a high-temperature/high-pressure steam drum that
ruptures, say due to mechanical impact or material defect. The liquid portion of the
water will instantaneously flash off, thus setting off the BLEVE pressure wave. The
contribution to the pressure wave from the "boiling" portion is several hundred (ratio of
specific volumes of gas versus liquid vg/vf) times that of the contribution from the portion
that was already steam and which also expands upon rupture (ratio of
Pinitial/Patmosphere), also considering the rapid temperature drop from
BoilingPointTemperatureAtHiPressure to BoilingPointTemperatureAtAtmosPressure. The
fireball that accompanies the BLEVE of a flammable material (especially if the rupture is
a result of metal weakening due to an external fire in the first place) is a separate
phenomenon. The main hazard from a BLEVE is overpressure and metal fragments.
The main hazard from a fireball is thermal radiation. Unfortunately, the word BLEVE is
often associated with the fireball, and not the overpressure effects of the "explosive
boiling", thus causing much confusion among first responders as well as among
modellers and researchers. As for what level of external thermal radiation would lead to
a rupture of a vessel containing a pressure-liquefied gas, this is entirely a function of
the strength/temperature properties of the vessel material and internal pressure, which
in turn is a function of how much heat is absorbed by the vessel material and the stored
material, taking into account the thermal radiation received, internal cooling (surfaces
lapped by the liquid inside stay cooler longer than surfaces that are exposed to vapor
only), and external cooling (such as with a water deluge). I am not aware of any rule of
thumb that relates all these parameters and provides an easy answer to the question
that started this discussion thread.
12 days ago • Like 2

J RAMESH BABU • To supplement Ertugrul's comment on the BLEVE of non

flammable substances, I would like to refer to the "boil over" incident that happened in a
power plant of Venezuela in 1981. Over 50 people were killed due to the boil over
incident which included predominantly the fire fighters few of whom jumped in to the
nearby river to dowse the heat and died. Typically the overheated fuel oil containing
Follow J water at the bottom of the tank can make the water to expand 1300 times and thereby
RAMESH
result in boil over phenomenon. However we do not address them by using the term
"BLEVE" which has become the copy right of LPG due to few worst case incidents the
world witnessed!
12 days ago • Like

Pradeep Prakash • Hello Ramesh. The boil-over and BLEVE although both very
damaging are totally different phenomenons and have different causes. BLEVE is due to
sudden drop of pressure cause the liquified gas to vaporize suddenly and as you rightly
mentioned boil-over is due to the water within the tank turning into steam with large

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BLEVE Scenario | LinkedIn

amount of hot liquid from the tank being ejected.

Follow Pradeep
12 days ago • Like

J RAMESH BABU • Dear Pradeep, The key terms viz Boiling liquid, expansion and
explosion i.e the release of violent energy are shared by both, making the experts to
associate the boil over phenomenon as a type of BLEVE! Water explosions are
considered as BLEVE and are discussed in few literatures!!
Follow J 11 days ago • Like
RAMESH

Delphine Laboureur • I would more agree with Pradeep on saying that BLEVE and
Boilover are two types of accident. The only similarity between both is that you can
observe at one point of the phenomenon a liquid that boils, but a Boilover happens with
water and fuel at atmospheric pressure, and generates increased radiation due to the
fuel ejection caused by the water boiling. But there is no blast wave generated, where,
Follow Delphine as Ertugrul perfectly said, one of the main hazards of a BLEVE is the blast wave
generated at the reservoir rupture. And in a BLEVE, the fluid boils due to a
depressurization... And Ramesh, you are right, a BLEVE can happen with water, but not
in the context of a boilover. In a boilover, you have only a small water layer underneath
a larger fuel layer, stored at atmospheric pressure. A water BLEVE happens in a
reservoir that becomes pressurized due to for example a strong heat source.

And concerning my answer to the original question of Muhammad, I would also say that
the liquid does not need to be flammable to cause a BLEVE, and that there is no
minimal quantity needed.
10 days ago • Like 2

Ertugrul Alp, PhD, PEng • In the boilover case, the height of the liquid column
(typically a flammable hydrocarbon, but does not need to be; just needs to be lighter
than liquid water and have a relatively high boiling point) above the water layer below
provides the pressure containment. So, although the tank is "atmospheric", the water is
under some pressure above atmospheric. The external fire heats up the tank contents.
Follow Ertugrul As the temperature of the water goes above its boiling point at that slightly-above-
atmospheric pressure, it boils. The expanding vapour (steam) rises within the
hydrocarbon liquid, ripping it apart and splashing it around and out of the tank. The
splashed liquid hydrocarbon ignites due to the external fire, thus causing much of the
damage. The "pressure wave" from the boiling water is very slight, because there is no
real containment other than the liquid column height. In a sense, the mechanism is very
similar to BLEVE, without the last E (for Explosion). A more appropriate term might be
BLEVS (Boiling Liquid - Expanding Vapour - Splash) :) (no I am not advocating the use
of BLEVS; we have enough confusion about BLEVE already.)
10 days ago • Like

Delphine Laboureur • Ertugrul, your argument is great, I like it very much, but I've
studied both phenomenon for 4 years, and I have really difficulties to make them based
of the same mechanism...

I still see some differences. In the BLEVE, the fluid boils as it becomes superheated due
Follow Delphine to the depressurization. In the boilover, the water boils as it becomes superheated due
to the heating.Furthermore, In the BLEVE, the boiling is explosive, and extremely fast,
as in the Boilover, the boiling increases slowly with time until reaching a critical heat flux
that increases strongly the water boiling, and causes the fuel ejection.

So I think it is a matter of point of view if these two accidents could be linked or not.
Finally, I totally agree that enough confusion exists about BLEVE :-)
10 days ago • Like 3

Ertugrul Alp, PhD, PEng • Delphine, I agree fully with your comments, which explain
my understanding much more elegantly than my words.
10 days ago • Like 1

Follow Ertugrul

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BLEVE Scenario | LinkedIn

Pradeep Prakash • I recommend Delphin's PhD dissertaon (which can be found on

the net) which deals comprehensively with BLEVE and Boilover. The two phenomenon
should be treated seperately and not confused.
9 days ago • Like
Follow Pradeep

Martin Pitt • The link for Delphine's PhD is:

http://theses.ulb.ac.be/ETD-db/collection/available/ULBetd-11272012-
145859/unrestricted/PhD_DLaboureur.pdf
9 days ago • Like
Follow Martin

Delphine Laboureur • Feel free to repply to me privately if you have some questions
about my work, I would be very happy to answer.
9 days ago • Like

Follow Delphine

Muhammad Mudassar Ali - PE • splendid.....many thanks to all experts for making

my lil question a gateway for sharing your practical knowledge and skills
9 days ago

Muhammad Mudassar Ali - PE • Delphine! is BLEVE possible in three phase

separator mostly working at high pressure in oil and gas plant?
7 days ago

Manish Saroha • Wonderful discussion covering almost everything on the topic. And
must admit one of the very few where the word 'BLEVE' is not hijacked to be used only
for highly volatile HC.

Just for brainstorming, an accidental breakage of a glass bottle in a laboratory filled with
Follow Manish chlorine can also result into BLEVE.
9 hours ago • Like

Pradeep Prakash • What is the best way to model boilover in consequence

modelling. OGO suggests modelling it as full surface fire 5 diameter high. Any other
ideas?
8 hours ago • Like
Follow Pradeep

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