Risk of explosion in condensed phase

The study and prevention of condensate phase explosions is a vast subject. This article deals with the risk of condensate phase explosions in the chemical and parachemical industries, including the storage of reactive materials, but not in the agri-food, nuclear or explosives industries, which face very specific problems. Its aim is to set out the knowledge that can contribute to improving safety in industry, with particular emphasis on methods for assessing and predicting the risk of explosion, and on the experimental methods used. The phenomenon of condensed-phase explosion is also referred to as thermal explosion, thermal runaway or reaction runaway, depending on the circumstances in which it occurs.

This article does not deal with the protection of equipment by means of vents to control runaway reactions. DIERS (Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems) methods for vent sizing, which are highly developed in the USA, are not widely used in Europe, but are likely to become more widespread as regulations evolve.

In this article, we will successively develop :

• methods for assessing and predicting the risk of thermal runaway ;

• experimental methods for studying the risk of thermal runaway ;

• the methodology used in studies of this type of risk and the processing of experimental results.

Finally, we sought to identify the general causes of accidents, and to indicate the means of prevention and protection that could be implemented.

For a different presentation of this article, please refer to the bibliographic references and .