Evaluation of explosion pressure of portable small liquefied petroleum gas cylinder

Abstract

This study aims to estimate the explosive pressures and permanent volume expansion of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) portable small LPG cylinder fuel tanks using experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) approaches. Experimental explosion testing was carried out by means of a hydrostatic device in which the cylinders were pressurized with water. LPG tanks are subjected to increased internal equal pressure in FEA modeling. Three-dimensional nonlinear models were developed and evaluated under irregular boundary conditions. For analysis, the required real shell properties including the source region and thickness variations were investigated. Therefore, the results of burst pressures and volume expansions are predicted and compared with the experimental ones. The results of finite element method showed similar results with the results obtained from the experiments. The results provide a description of the stages of the explosion and the hazards arising from the damage to the tanks.