The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Monday, February 17, 2014
Big badaboom!
This video clip is said to show a Russian truck carrying cylinders of oxygen - well, what used to be cylinders of oxygen . . .
I'm with Anon 322 PM except for one thing. Hydrogen has an invisible flame (faint, light blue). Bright yellow like that is more like carbon-carbon bonds. Acetylene is a good guess. Maybe propane.
Only caveat is this is pure theory. Never seen O2 bottles going up, and hope I never do.
That is actually exploding propane cylinders. As someone above said, oxygen accelerates a fuel, so the burning of the fuel would be white (think the Saturn V at lift off). Watch the cylinders, and the flame is yellow/black, which indicates incomplete combustion. Also, near the end, you have cylinders that are exhausting a white liquid stream going into a gas without a flame, once the cylinder is free of the main fire.
For people who are firemen, the technical term for what you are watching is BLEVE (Boiling Liquid, Expanding Vapor, Explosion). If you search youtube for that term, you'll see other examples.
I think the guy in the blue/white shirt, talking on the cell, was the driver. Early on you can see someone sprint across the road, in front of the little white car that never moves.
Maybe they do propane in different types of tanks over there. To my eye, they look like the type of tank used for acetylene. Skinny for their height. When they were exploding, they were unwrapping, instead of shattering.
Had to laugh at the car that was going to just drive past the truck. I've seen this sort of mentality on the highways. On their way home from work, and nothing(!) is going to get in their way.
10 comments:
Ya know, if I'm driving that kind of cargo, I'm going to be driving far, far more carefully than that truck driver was.
There's no way that was just oxygen. Oxygen is needed to burn, but it won't burn by itself. It's either hydrogen or (most likely) acetylene.
Daaaaaaamn. I didn't see anyone bail out of the truck, either.
When I watched it, here in Seattle, the pasted-on advert was for Gas Grills at Lowe's.
Coincidence? You decide.
I'm with Anon 322 PM except for one thing. Hydrogen has an invisible flame (faint, light blue). Bright yellow like that is more like carbon-carbon bonds. Acetylene is a good guess. Maybe propane.
Only caveat is this is pure theory. Never seen O2 bottles going up, and hope I never do.
That is actually exploding propane cylinders. As someone above said, oxygen accelerates a fuel, so the burning of the fuel would be white (think the Saturn V at lift off). Watch the cylinders, and the flame is yellow/black, which indicates incomplete combustion. Also, near the end, you have cylinders that are exhausting a white liquid stream going into a gas without a flame, once the cylinder is free of the main fire.
For people who are firemen, the technical term for what you are watching is BLEVE (Boiling Liquid, Expanding Vapor, Explosion). If you search youtube for that term, you'll see other examples.
Steve
I think the guy in the blue/white shirt, talking on the cell, was the driver. Early on you can see someone sprint across the road, in front of the little white car that never moves.
For the record, pouring liquid oxygen on asphalt produces a high explosive.
.
BLEVE is right, that is Propane tanks cooking off! Fought one or two of those over the years... NOT fun!
Maybe they do propane in different types of tanks over there. To my eye, they look like the type of tank used for acetylene. Skinny for their height. When they were exploding, they were unwrapping, instead of shattering.
Had to laugh at the car that was going to just drive past the truck. I've seen this sort of mentality on the highways. On their way home from work, and nothing(!) is going to get in their way.
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