RE: Fire case flow rate through a vent with a flame arrester

One must also give consideration to the cooling effect on the tank and its contents from boiling (or much higher rate of evaporation) within the tank as it's external surface heats up due to external fire. Although most situations and many local codes and insurance carriers either mandate or suggest insulation, I have encountered a few situations where the best thing was to NOT insulate, and allow the contents to vaporize and cool the tank. In this and all other cases, the issue is whether or not the vent is adequately sized to allow vapors of boiling liquid to vent and avoid over-pressurizing the tank.

The original question was regarding the adequacy of the flame arrestor, and whether it had excessive pressure drop to avoid over-pressuring the tank in event of fire. I have found tht even few vendors really understand what a flame arrestor does and how it works. I cannot answer that question, as there was insufficent detail provided, and I am not an expert, I have just installed them in many uses.

... Bruce D. Bullough ...
Lead Process Engineer
Foth Production Systems, LLC
8550 Hudson Boulevard North, Suite 100
Lake Elmo, MN 55042
Direct: +651-288-8598 Fax: +651-288-8551 http://www.foth.com

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RE: [PipingDesign] Fire case flow rate through a vent with a flame arrester

Chakra,

The API 2000 standard that gives guidance on the venting of tanks does not seem to give credit to having the insulation or fire-proofing that may be applied to reduce the heat.

I found some a similar discussion at,

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=66393

Sajit

"In such cases, you can try application of insulation on external surfaces of the vessel. This will retard the fire exposure."

Chakra

Save a tree...please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Received on Thu Feb 28 08:50:00 2008