Fires drumming equipment

It was noticed that the order of process items in the layout spacing recommendations is almost identical. The furnaces and fired heaters are on the top of the list (see Table 18). The next group is formed by compressors and high hazard reactors. Air coolers, ordinary reactors and high hazard pumps appear next. After that come towers, process drums, heat exchangers and pumps. The last and safest group is formed of equipment handling nonflammable and nontoxic materials. 

A 55-gal (208-1) drum of diesel fuel is suddenly ruptured during a warehouse accident. The fuel is released quickly across the concrete slab and is ignited when it comes in contact with a piece of equipment. Physical barriers limit the fuel spill to an area of 40 m. Determine the size of the resulting fire and the potential for damage to adjacent steel structure and personnel. The closest equipment to the edge of the pool is 5 m away at ground level. Assume a steel failure at 500°C (932°F). 

The flame-test apparatus used at the US BurMines Explosives Experiment Station at Bruceton, Pa consists essentially of a cannon in which an explosive is fired or detonated. The cannon, identical widi that employed for the ballistic pendulum,ia mounts vertically on a concrete foundation located ia a dark building. By means of a photographic camera equipped with auitable devicea to cot off all extraneous light rays, the flame ia continuously obaetved such that its apex is in the field of view. The flame is recorded on a sensitixed film wrapped about a drum that revolves at a predetermined rate of speed. The length of each flame is indicated by its hei t in the photograph, and the duration by the length of photograph... 

February 23, 2000— 40 to 45 gallons of molten slag spills from a drum and starts a fire that bums the covering of the concrete floor and electrical equipment in a secondary room of the liquid incinerator. 

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