Shrapnel

Another simple hazard is a pressure vessel rupture due lo over pressure. A steam vessel rupture may scald vorkers and injure them viih shrapnel. Many people died in the last century from boiler explosions. The ves-... 

Anon., Lab. Accid. Higher Educ., item 7, Barking, HSE, 1987 A pyrotechnic device was being prepared by loading 16 g of a mixture of 73% potassium chlorate, 24% gallic acid and 3% gum tragacanth into a 9 mm copper tube 280 mm long, when it exploded violently and caused shrapnel injuries. Such mixtures are very friction-sensitive. 

The most obvious source a gas accumulation is a fuel leak. Other rare losses have occurred due to lubrication failures, causing the equipment to over heat, with subsequent metal fatigue and disintegration. Once disintegration occurs heat release from the combustion chamber will occur along with shrapnel and small projectiles which will be thrown free from the unit from inertia momentum of the rotating device. 

A one hour fire wall or "substantial space" should be provided between the turbine and gas compressor. The utilization of explosion blow-out panels in the acoustical enclosure will also limit damage from an explosion. Although strengthen panels could be provided to protect against shrapnel ejection, the cost installation coupled with the low probability of such an occurrence and the low personnel exposure periods, generally render this a non-cost effective safety improvement. 

The response to a nuclear explosion differs dramatically from the response to an attack with conventional explosives. When conventional explosives such as dirty bombs disperse radiological materials, the health hazards from the radiation exposure are secondary to the explosion (flying shrapnel, debris, fire, and smoke). In the case of a nuclear explosion, the risks of death, serious short-term health effects, and serious long-term health effects are no longer secondary to the explosion. 

The third column of Table 5.1 presents the radius of 50% mortality from the air blast of a nuclear weapon. The blast (or shock wave) travels in all directions from ground zero at approximately the speed of sound. The blast alone can be fatal, but the risk of serious injury or fatality increases significantly because the shock wave picks up any materials in its path (e.g., shards of glass, metal, etc.). At the speed of sound, the air blast plus flying shrapnel travels at a speed of about 1 mile every 5 seconds. Thus, an individual 5 miles from ground zero has about 25 seconds to take cover before the air blast arrives. The same air blast speed applies to almost any size nuclear weapon.2 The risk of injury from the blast drops with increased distance from ground zero. 

In no case were there sufficient data to estimate reliable overpressures and impulses from the explosion. From the description of some events, it would appear that they might have been large. However, injury reports, even from many of the more severe accidents, do not substantiate this concept because workers in the area were either not iqjured or, if injured, were usually burned or hit by shrapnel. 

Extensive. Severe splash. RooffeUin. WaUofthe building had a hole blown in it (shrapnel )... 

Minor. Shrapnel caused injuries to some personnel... 

Moderate. Roof and siding blown off building Extensive. Furnace destroyed. Much shrapnel Moderate. Much of furnace damaged... 

While the incidents described earlier are quite severe, it is difficult to describe them as major explosions. Even with the largest ingot diameter and with an efficient tamp (by electrode cable failure), a rather simple vault enclosure was sufficient to contain the blast wave and shrapnel. 

For display shells of 200 mm and above, reinforced fibreglass mortar tubes are invariably used. Welded steel tubes have long been considered to be amongst the safest because, in the event of a pressure-burst, the tube will split in the vicinity of the weld, thus creating a predictable danger zone. With seamless tubes the fragmentation is completely random and creates a shrapnel hazard for the fireworks operator. 

Each cavity contributes ca 7 MeV to the injected electrons. The electron beam ejected from thermionic cathode in the electron gun, pass thru injector lens into accelerator cavities and from there is focused upon a 3-mm diam aperture in a thick Be collimator. After emerging from it, the beam passes thru a 0.5 mm thick Be window and falls on a 1-mm thick tungsten target, which is located ca 10 meters outside of reinforced concrete housing, which provides protection for PHERMEX from blast or shrapnel... 

Nose Time Fuze M06/17 and Time and Percussion Nose Fuze ADE M06for shrapnel projs (p 147)... 

Type 3rd-Yr Combination Powder Time and Impact Fuze for 75-mm shrapnel proj (pp... 

Shrapnel shell was invented by Brit Lt Shrapnel to use against troops in the open (Ref 11, p 31). It partly replaced case-shot, described in Vo 2 of Encycl, pp C24-R C25-L. A brief description of Shrapnel shell is given in Colver (Ref 12, p 497). It was adopted in 1803 by British Govt for military purposes... 

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