Research on hazard of fragments from spherical tank BLEVE

Domino effect is a well-known cause of major accidents in the chemical process industries, resulting in overall consequences which are more severe than those of the primary event. Fragment projection is one of the major escalation vectors to cause domino effect. The present work took a spherical tank with boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) as an example. The probability distribution density of uncertain parameters in the generation and flight of fragments were determined by the data from literatures, and simulated by Monte-Carlo method. Then the projectile distances of fragments were calculated. In this way, the impact probabilities of fragments on objective vessels were attained. The impact probabilities of fragments on the different objective vessels have great gaps. However, the impact probabilities of fragments produced by vessels with different filling levels on the same object are almost same. This method is of great significance for the risk assessment and control of fragments from explosion of spherical tank. It can be used to provide guidance and reference for determining safety distance to prevent domino effect of fragments between storage tanks.