We present here a narrative of an incident that occurred in chemistry laboratory while purifying benzene using distillation apparatus. The resulted injury to graduate student and fire caused approximately $3.5 million damage including repair/refurbishment costs. Unfortunately, due the extent fire, direct cause could not be determined. lessons learned from this have potentially prevented altoget...

The mechanisms of short pulse laser interactions with a metal target are investigated in simulations performed with a model combining the molecular dynamics method with a continuum description of laser excitation, electron-phonon equilibration, and electron heat conduction. Three regimes of material response to laser irradiation are identified in simulations performed with a 1 ps laser pulse, w...

Materials processing using high power pulsed lasers involves complex phenomena including rapid heating, superheating of the laser-melted material, rapid nucleation, and phase explosion. With a heating rate on the order of 10 K/s or higher, the surface layer melted by laser irradiation can reach a temperature higher than the normal boiling point. On the other hand, the vapor pressure does not bu...

Combustion hazards associated with liquid fuels are often categorized in terms of the fuel’s flashpoint. However, in hazard scenarios where high-flashpoint fuel is released under pressure, jet breakup and aerosol formation will result. In these cases, this simplistic method of combustion hazard classification may be not sufficient and then alternative approaches are required. As for gases and d...

Natural gas, composed mainly of methane, is in some ways similar to propane gas. Both fuels have similar energy densities per unit mass, and similar laminar premixed flame burning velocities. However, propane explosions have been shown to produce higher overpressures in unconfined explosion tests when compared to methane. In vapor cloud explosion modeling, methane is considered to be a “low” re...

The rapid evaporation of a superheated liquid (vapor explosion) under microgravity conditions is studied by direct numerical simulation. The time-dependent Navier-Stokes and energy equations coupled to the interface dynamics are solved using a two-dimensional nite-di erence/front-tracking method. Large interface deformations, topology change, latent heat, surface tension and unequal material pr...

The paper describes an approach to predicting gas explosion loads and response which has been developed for offshore installations and which only recently has been adapted to onshore petrochemical facilities. The paper consists of three parts: Part 1: An overview of vapour cloud explosion hazards in petrochemical onshore facilities and a discussion of modeling approaches. Part 2: A probabilisti...

The liquid–vapor two-phase region has attracted the attention of various fundamental studies and applications. To explore region, underwater electrical wire explosion (UEWE) is a useful tool. In this work, we observe two different mechanisms transition in UEWE: volume vaporization spinodal decomposition. main factors through which occur are heating power pressure accumulation system during UEWE...