Resumen de Contribution to the study of boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions and their mechanical effects
Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions keep occurring from time to time in process plants, storage areas and transportation by road or rail, often with severe effects. There is no doubt that a better knowledge of their main features will help in decreasing both their frequency and their consequences.
This is the main aim of this thesis: the analysis of the main causes of BLEVEs, the improvement in the prediction of their effects and consequences and, finally, the definition of simple measures to be applied in the management of emergencies associated to these events.
Historical analyses have been performed to determine the prevalence of BLEVEs among all major accidents in fixed plants and in the transportation of hazardous materials, as well as their main causes; the action of fire as domino effect escalation has also been studied, with special attention to the time to failure of a vessel in such a situation.
The different existing methodologies for the estimation of the peak overpressure are presented and compared, and the diverse uncertainty factors affecting the prediction of BLEVE mechanical effects are analyzed.
A new and relatively simple methodology has been proposed to predict the blast effects of these explosions, which allows a quick and accurate estimation. Finally, based on all these analyses, simple emergency management measures are proposed which could reduce significantly the consequences of BLEVEs on people.
