The accident resulted in 30 fatalities, with up to 10, people injured and 14, people receiving therapy for acute posttraumatic stress. The cost was estimated by insurers to be in the region of 1.
After their arrival, firefighters started to fight the fire when a detonation occurred. Although the firefighters were aware of the hazard from the tanks of anhydrous ammonia, they were not informed of the explosion hazard from the 30 tonnes of fertiliser grade ammonium nitrate with a 34 percent total nitrogen content, which was stored in bulk granular form in a 7 m high bin inside the wooden warehouse. For example, tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate exploded in Toulouse on 21 September killing 29 people, including people off site.
Ammonium Nitrate was also the material which exploded in West Texas in when 15 people were killed and injured. It is always potentially unstable and becomes more unstable if its purity is compromised. The video evidence in Beirut showing the fire before the explosion, with fireworks apparently exploding all the time, would have provided an obvious source of ignition for the Ammonium Nitrate store.
A better estimate of the size will be available from a closer look at the damage patterns; but it looks initially that only a small fraction of the tons actually detonated — hundreds of tons of TNT equivalent, not thousands. It became the explosive of choice for many terrorist groups — easily obtained and utilised for nefarious purposes. Used as an explosive when mixed with organic matter such as fuel oil to give ANFO cheap explosive for quarrying etc.
It can be used in more sophisticated explosives which overcome the fact that ammonium nitrate is water soluble. Bulk ammonium nitrate just piled on a floor is more difficult to keep uncontaminated. It is thought that molten ammonium nitrate puddles in a fire can be detonated should there be an impact from collapsing parts of a building structure even if there was no prior contamination of the ammonium nitrate.
This can be greatly affected by atmospheric conditions at the time, particularly a temperature inversion, which can lead to damage at greater distances than would be expected normally and hence potentially overestimating the quantity of explosive involved. This was reportedly confiscated following the seizure of the MV Rhosus on 23 Sep when it was found to be carrying 2, tons of bulk ammonium nitrate.
The ammonium nitrate was discharged into dockside warehousing where it remained. Ammonium nitrate is not normally acknowledged as a high explosive in its own right, being mixed with other components such as oils, aluminium powder etc. These include:.
The crater visible beside the remains of the dockside concrete grain silos the next morning is extremely large and, in my opinion based on remote imagery only , is consistent with such a quantity of explosives having detonated. The risk increases if it is contaminated with e.
The white expanding cloud seen in the videos is the moisture in the air which condenses as the detonation shockwave moves through the air at the speed of sound.
The material should be in a well ventilated area and spaced out to prevent fire spread, HSE advice being not more than tonnes per stack. It should also be stored away from a list of other materials such as flammable liquids, powdered metals, acids, chlorates, nitrates, zinc, copper and its salts, oils, grease, gas cylinders etc. It is an oxidiser which means that it can enhance combustion reactions.
It does this by providing additional oxygen from the nitrate ion which is a combination of nitrogen and oxygen. Ammonium nitrate will undergo an exothermic decomposition. That means once it is heated the compound splits apart releasing energy. This increases the temperature of the adjacent material which in turn increases the reaction rate.
A feedback loop is established and the rate of the reaction continues to increase. Under some conditions this may result in an explosion deflagration. In this case it seems that a detonation occurred which is possible under the right conditions.
Although it is hard to ignite, ammonium nitrate can undergo a detonation if it is strongly heated in a confined space. Fuel Tanks: Fuel tanks are used in both residences as well as industrial businesses to store gasses such as petroleum gasoline, propane, and other types of natural gasses.
Because these gasses are highly flammable and combustible, storing them properly is imperative to preventing an incident. Improper installation, design flaws, open valves, unaddressed leaks, and mishandling are the most common causes of fuel tank explosions in commercial industries. Automobile fuel tanks also have the potential to explode if they are not designed properly or are incorrectly installed or secured.
Regular wear and tear, rollover or collision accidents can cause the tank to leak or even come loose and catch fire; which may increase the risk of the car exploding.
People who witness an explosion may be severely injured by flying debris, high impact, heat and smoke, or chemical inhalation. Often victims of explosions must undergo costly medical care to treat their injuries; which may lead to extensive medical bills as well as pain and suffering.
Property owners, manufacturers, employers, or other individuals who caused the explosion may be held liable for any damages or injuries to other individuals, and victims may eligible for compensation. In some cases, insurance companies will only cover certain portions of medical expenses such as rehabilitation bills and lost wages, and this coverage may not be enough.
We understand that being a victim of an explosion is not only traumatic, but confusing as well, and we have the experience and resources to help you recover any damages related to your injury. Our attorneys are available around the clock to answer any and all of your questions, and initial consultations are free of charge. Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail.
The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Critical Initiation Energy detonation This is the smallest amount of energy deposition that will cause direct initiation of a detonation wave.
Direct initiation is associated with emergence of a detonation wave immediately out of a strong blast wave with transition through a deflagration phase. This is usually caused by blast waves created by rapid energy addition either from the detonation of solid or gaseous explosives in fuel-air mixtures, or exploding wires or spark discharges in fuel-oxygen mixtures. For solid explosives, the energy equivalent is usually based on the equivalent mass of explosive tetryl with an assigned energy value of 4.
Confinement by tubes or channels will decrease the critical energy since the blast waves decay more slowly than in the unconfined case. The critical initiation energy is observed to scale with the cube of the induction zone length or the detonation cell width for spherical geometry, the square for cylindrical geometry, and linearly for planar geometry. Chapman-Jouguet Velocity This is the velocity that an ideal detonation travels at as determined by the Chapman-Jouguet CJ condition: the burned gas at the end of the reaction zone travel at sound speed relative to the detonation wave front.
CJ velocities can be computed numerically by solving for thermodynamic equilibrium and satisfying mass, momentum, and energy conservation for a steadily-propagating wave terminating in a sonic point. Damkohler number Ratio of characteristic residence time or fluid motion time scale to characteristic reaction time. Small Damkohler number Da Deflagration This is a propagating flame that moves subsonically the flame speed is less than the speed of sound in a mixture of fuel and oxidizer.
The circumstances involve a sufficiently sensitive mixture very rapid chemical reaction in a geometrical configuration that is favorable to flame acceleration - this usually requires confinement and obstructions or obstacles in the path of the flame. Such mixtures are characterized by a small detonation cell width, high flame speed, and high volume expansion ratio. Strongly dependent on the geometry, type of mixture and presence of turbulence generating elements within the path of the flame propagation.
The minimum distance needed for DDT appears to scale as a multiple of the detonation cell width. Detonation This is a supersonic combustion wave. Detonations in gases propagate with velocities that range from 5 to 7 times the speed of sound in the reactants.
The ideal detonation speed, known as the Chapman-Jouguet velocity , is a function of the reactant composition, initial temperature and pressure. Detonation cell width This is the characteristic width of the cellular pattern that is created by the instabilities that plague all propagating gaseous detonation waves. The cell width is measured by a sooted sheet or foil of metal inserted inside a tube used for detonation experiments.
Detonation cell widths are used to characterize the sensitivity or susceptibility of a mixture to detonation. Sensitive mixtures acetylene-oxygen have cell sizes less than 1 mm; insensitive mixtures methane-air or any lean hydrocarbon-air mixture can have cell sizes of up to 1 m.
Explosion There is no fixed definition of an explosion. Events that are described as explosions include a rupturing water boiler, a flash of light created by an electrical short circuit, detonation of a high explosive, deflagration of a tank containing an explosive fuel-air mixture, or the shock wave, fireball, and debris cloud produced by a thermonuclear detonation.
Berthelot, the French chemist that pioneered the scientific study of explosions, is reputed Bailey and Murray, Explosives, Propellants and Pyrotechnics, Brassey to have defined an explosion in as "the sudden explosion of gases into a volume of much greater than their initial one, accompanied by noise and violent mechanical effects.
Explosion limits Explosion limits usually refer to the range of pressure and temperature for which an explosive reaction at a fixed composition mixture is possible. The reaction is usually initiated by autocatalytic sometimes called self-heating reaction at those conditions, without any external ignition source. In practical terms, this means that the mixture needs to be sufficiently hot.
Explosion and flammability limits are distinct. Flammability limits refer to the range of compositions, for fixed temperature and pressure, within which an explosive reaction is possible when an external ignition source is introduced. This can happen even when the mixture is cold. Equivalence ratio Ratio of fuel to oxidizier divided by the same ratio at stoichiometric conditions. Expansion ratio Ratio of burned gas volume to initial volume for a low-speed constant pressure flame.
Expansion is responsible for flame-induced flow. Fire This is a flame that is produced over a stationary fuel source such as a liquid hydrocarbon pool or solid such as wood. Flame This is a thin zone of combustion in which diffusion plays a dominant role.
Flames in hydrocarbon fuels and air are less than 0. Flame acceleration Rapid increase in flame speed due to generation of large and small eddies - turbulence - as flow ahead of flame passes over objects or through orifices.
Flame speed This is the speed with which a flame, possibly turbulent, appears to move relative to a stationary observer. The flame speed can be much larger than the burning velocity due to expansion of the combustion products, instability, and turbulent deformation of the flame. Flame Stretch Measure of the rate at which the area of a propagating flame surface is changing due to curvature of flame surface and strain gradients in velocity in flow ahead of the flame.
Units of reciprocal time. Flame Thickness Characteristic width of flame. One simple estimate is based on the ratio of the thermal diffusivity to the fame speed. Flammability A fuel-air mixture is flammable when combustion can be started by an ignition source. The main fact is the proportions or composition of the fuel-air mixture.
For example, the lean flammability limit for Jet A aviation kerosene in air at sea level is a concentration by volume or partial pressure of about 0. The rich flammability limit is about 4.
Flammability limits are not absolute, but depend on the type and strength of the ignition source.
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