Liquid Nitrogen Tank Explosion

Why buildings fall down levy et al cites one example of a water tank head snapping through accelerating the tank until it contacted a nearby natural gas line which ruptured in turn and ended predictably.

Liquid nitrogen tank explosion.

It doesn t take liquid nitrogen to do this. In an incident on january 12 2006 at texas a m university the pressure relief devices of a tank of liquid nitrogen were malfunctioning and later sealed as a result of the subsequent pressure buildup the tank. The explosion in a 3 inch liquid nitrogen gas line also damaged a storage tank causing nitrogen gas to vent out of the building wegner said. Because the liquid to gas expansion ratio of nitrogen is 1 694 at 20 c 68 f a tremendous amount of force can be generated if liquid nitrogen is vaporized in an enclosed space.

Wegner said the explosion happened when a 3 inch liquid nitrogen line ruptured.