The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) is fifty … and lives on!

Abstract

The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) is among the most fearsome of accidents that can occur wherever a pressure liquefied gas (PLG) exists. If a container with a PLG suffers structural failure—be it due to creep, fatigue, or fire-induced or other forms of accidental jeopardy—it may lead to a sudden depressurization of the container. As a result, the PLG will suddenly be transformed into a liquid which is ‘superheated’ in respect of the precipitously lowered pressure. Depending on the nature of the chemical, its quantity, and the mechanism of the container failure, such a situation can lead to instantaneous and violent vaporization of the contents, causing a ‘boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion’—a BLEVE. Even though BLEVEs have been occurring ever since the use of pressure liquified gases began, they were not recognized or studied as a clearly distinct form of explosion that they are, until 1957. In that year, three engineers working in USA coined the term BLEVE when they witnessed an explosion which could not be categorized by any of the explosion types known till then. Even though, as described in this paper, the acronym took time to gain wide currency, it has served the very important purpose of giving the BLEVE phenomenon a distinct identity. This, in turn, has stimulated considerable work towards the understanding and control of BLEVEs. In this commemorative piece, which marks the 50th year of the coinage of the BLEVE acronym, we recall the event which led to the coinage, and the pioneering work of the three who introduced BLEVE to the world—J.B. Smith, W.S. Marsh, and W.L. Walls.