(143a) Analysis on a Catastrophic Rupture of Liquid Hydrogen Tank Incident

One of the worst-case scenarios for liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage and transportation is the catastrophic rupture of LH2 tank. Associated with the LH2 tank rupture, a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) will occur and led to consequences including blast overpressure, fireball and projectiles which can pose a serious risk to people or facilities in the surroundings. Understanding of these impacts from a potential LH2 tank BLEVE and reasonable predictions of the consequences are important for safe handling of LH2.

Published BLEVE events are primarily for cryogenic hydrocarbons such as LPG (propane and butane) or LNG. Although a few of experiments have been done to assess the BLEVE phenomenon of LH2 tank rupture, all of them are for small vessels (≤ 1 m³). In this paper, details of an actual industrial-scale LH2 tank (34.1 m³) BLEVE incident including the most likely causes, damages and witness observations, are illustrated. The incident resulted in several non-life-threatening injuries and some property damages. There are important lessons to be learned from the event that impact liquid hydrogen tank safety system design and emergency response. Moreover, predictive methods for fireball, blast waves and projectiles are proposed and compared against the incident damages. The comparisons showed that predictions from the Martinsen dynamic fireball model, BakerRisk pressure vessel burst (PVB) blast wave model and the projectile model reasonably matched the eyewitness accounts.