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Forensic analysis on bursting accident of buffer tank in liquefied natural gas bus
Author(s) -
Chai JunHui,
Lv ZhongJie,
Shen ZhengXiang,
Huan HuangDong,
Zhang XiaoLong,
Zhang ZiJiang,
Xu Bo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.14714
Subject(s) - cabin pressurization , liquefied natural gas , storage tank , natural gas , buffer (optical fiber) , environmental science , residual , liquid gas , petroleum engineering , waste management , forensic engineering , nuclear engineering , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , telecommunications , algorithm , computer science
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.