Case Studies of Three Explosions and a Chemical Accident

In Case Studies of Three Explosions and a Chemical Accident, you'll learn ...

• How an explosion may occur as the result of a chain of events, rather than as the result of a single cause
• Accidents are more likely than otherwise to happen during shift changes
• When greed, fear, ignorance, and defiance come together, disaster cannot be far behind
• A few basics about certain oil refining processes

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 3 PDH

Length: 44 pages

This course will present case studies of a refinery slop oil tank explosion, a rotary kiln explosion, a residential propane explosion, and a sulfuric acid barge accident. People died in the slop oil tank explosion, and a man was injured in the acid barge accident. The home in the residential gas explosion was completely destroyed, and the only reason no one was killed was because no one was in the vicinity. The tank explosion and the home explosion could have been avoided if the people involved had done the right thing, and the acid barge accident could probably been avoided with a simpler piping layout and simpler procedures. The kiln explosion would have been prevented by making a simple piping change.

Forensic engineers try to figure out how and why bad things have happened; that is to say, they try to determine the cause and origin of explosions and accidents. The scientific method is useful in this endeavor. The scientific method is an orderly pursuit of knowledge that generally requires the acknowledgement and understanding of a problem, the collection of data, observation and sometimes experimentation, and the formulation and testing of one or more hypotheses. The scientific method was employed in the investigations of all three of the incidents described in this course.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• How an explosion may occur as the result of a chain of events, rather than as the result of a single cause
• Accidents are more likely than otherwise to happen during shift changes
• When greed, fear, ignorance, and defiance come together, disaster cannot be far behind
• A few basics about certain oil refining processes
• The physical characteristics of propane
• How to calculate the stoichiometric combustion percent for propane in air, and what we mean by "explosion envelope", "Lower Explosion Limit", and "Upper Explosion Limit"
• How overly complicated procedures can contribute to accidents, and how ignoring procedures or misunderstanding where you are in them can be disastrous
• Why gas plumbing codes require that abandoned gas outlets must be capped with the valves closed
• How a little bit of ingenuity can sometimes greatly simplify a problem, and how Occam's razor usually rules

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 15 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.