Blast from explosive evaporation of carbon dioxide: Experiment, modeling and physics

Explosive evaporation of a superheated liquid is a relevant hazard in the process industry. A vessel rupture during storage, transport or handling may lead to devastating blast effects. In order to assess the risk associated with this hazard or to design protective measures, an accurate prediction model for the blast generated after vessel rupture is needed. For this reason a fundamental understanding of the effects of a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) is essential. In this paper, we report on a number of well-defined BLEVE experiments with 40-l liquid CO2 bottles. The existing inertia-limited BLEVE model has been validated by its application to these experiments. Good qualitative agreement between model and experiment was found, while quantitatively the results provide a safe estimate. Possible model improvements taking into account the finite rate of evaporation are described. These comprise phenomena such as bubble nucleation and growth rate, and the two-phase flow regime. Suggestions for improved experiments are given as well. © 2012 The Author(s)