Properties of simulated gas explosions of interest to the structural design process

Gas explosion simulators are often used as tools in process plant design, T his article presents some properties of gas explosions found using the EXSI M simulation software on three offshore modules with a total of nearly 10,0 00 simulations. The selected results are chosen for their supposed applicab ility to structural design in the process industries. Generalized data are presented for the effect of gas cloud size, explosion impulse vs. explosion pressure, pressure and impulse vs, duration, the prob ability of a "short" explosion, loading rate, pressure-time "shape" functio n, and the effect of introducing louvres.