Oxygen compatibility, materials and explosions

[CuzzA]

Cylinder incident in Luraville Florida

Former ABC11 photographer hurt in explosion

That latter story has had me thinking recently about the fact my one year old son's bedroom and subsequently, his crib, is just on the other side of the garage. He literally sleeps just a few feet away from all of my tanks, including an o2 tank. Basically there's nothing between him and a lot of potential energy.

I think I will be re-arranging my garage soon. Would a plate of AR500 steel against his wall be overkill?

 

[Diver0001]

I think I will be re-arranging my garage soon. Would a plate of AR500 steel against his wall be overkill?

If the tanks have a burst disk they will spin, not launch. Moreover, they will neither spin nor launch for no good reason. Something needs to happen for that.

You could tether the tanks or build a rack for them that would hold/dissipate most of the energy and/or launch them in a predictable direction but this is more of a concern while filling them than while storing them.

I had a valve blow off a tank once (actually, the valve broke apart) while it was filling. I wasn't there at the time but the guy who was doing the filling said the tank slid around the shop over the floor and the bit of valve that broke off blew a small hole in the ceiling and displaced some ceiling tiles (it was a tile ceiling).

All in all it wasn't the kind of damage that would make me lay awake at night.... It was enough that when I'm filling tanks I don't put my ear to the valve to listen for leaks... and I prefer to open them for filling and then walk away for a bit... but it hasn't changed anything in the way I store tanks.

As for the O2 tank. In the case of a fire, of course, O2 is exceedingly dangerous but again if there is a fire in your garage you can do something about that by installing a detection system so you are warned in time to get everyone to safety and/or install a fire suppression system. Depending on the system they aren't even THAT expensive anymore and could easily be installed in a garage.

R..

 

[PfcAJ]

That latter story has had me thinking recently about the fact my one year old son's bedroom and subsequently, his crib, is just on the other side of the garage. He literally sleeps just a few feet away from all of my tanks, including an o2 tank. Basically there's nothing between him and a lot of potential energy.

I think I will be re-arranging my garage soon. Would a plate of AR500 steel against his wall be overkill?

My girlfriend and I were moving some tanks in my garage. She accidentally dropped a steel 95 full of oxygen right on the valve.

ಠ_ಠ

“Yeah babe if you could not vaporize us today that’d be great...”

 

[CuzzA]

My girlfriend and I were moving some tanks in my garage. She accidentally dropped a steel 95 full of oxygen right on the valve.

ಠ_ಠ

“Yeah babe if you could not vaporize us today that’d be great...”

 

[Akimbo]

But...
Do you know anyone that has ever had this problem?

The UDT/SEALs' Oxygen fill station at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado had a pretty large Oxygen fire/explosion in the early 1970s. If I remember correctly, some guys were killed and injured. One of the Master Divers and a few of on our O2 Clean Room techs on our deep dive team went over to investigate the accident. I think they tracked it down to having ball valves in the system and it wasn't cleaned to the new standards implemented after the 1966 EDU chamber fire and the Apollo fire in 1967.

 

[Celt]

Oxygen is neither combustible or explosive, you must add fuel and heat. I’ve pumped 80% deco. stage bottles straight through a standard Bauer compressor from cutting oxygen j bottles.

 

[rddvet]

I’ve pumped 80% deco. stage bottles straight through a standard Bauer compressor from cutting oxygen j bottles.

If you're saying that you topped off oxygen filled bottles with air to create 80%, then so what. It's done all the time.

If you're saying that you pump oxygen through your compressor via say a nitrox stick at 80% , then I think anybody with knowledge of gas blending would say that's idiotic and you will eventually have an explosion.

 

[Celt]

If you're saying that you topped off oxygen filled bottles with air to create 80%, then so what. It's done all the time.

If you're saying that you pump oxygen through your compressor via say a nitrox stick at 80% , then I think anybody with knowledge of gas blending would say that's idiotic and you will eventually have an explosion.

Yes I pump oxygen through the compressor at 80% and no I won’t have an explosion, oxygen is not explosive and the conditions to cause an explosion are not present

 

[grf88]

Methinks that even "The Luck of the Irish" can run out.

 

[Akimbo]

Yes I pump oxygen through the compressor at 80% and no I won’t have an explosion, oxygen is not explosive and the conditions to cause an explosion are not present

Yes, you do need heat and fuel too. The part that is often misunderstood is that increased Oxygen concentrations dramatically increases the rate at which fuels burn and their combustibility. Heat of compression provides significant heat. Most lubricants that won't burn at room temperature, in air, and at sea level pressure will combust rapidly enough to be called an explosion with pure oxygen, at high pressure.

An unexpected ignition source can be a tiny metal particle in a HP Oxygen line that is rapidly accelerated to the speed of sound by opening a valve too rapidly -- which is why ball valves should never be installed in HP pure Oxygen systems and spindle valves should be opened slowly. NASA had some ultra-high speed cameras record a tiny stainless steel particle glowing red-hot in a HP line. They showed us that 16mm film clip during our Sat training, which included Oxygen cleaning procedures in our Class 100,000 clean room.