Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) as a Paradigm for Accidents in Non-Equilibrium Fluid Systems

Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) is a rapid release of energy possible through the principle of metastability, a phenomenon that allows substances to retain a less stable (metastable) state, past the point of transition, up to a stability limit. This principle is apparent in the trends of cubic equations of state, which exhibit a region of instability and allow for the explicit calculation of stability limit for a non-equilibrium fluid system. Here, the Clausius-II equation of state is used to capture the dynamics of BLEVE for a single species in three simple one-dimensional fluid systems: a) frictional flow through a pipe; b) frictionless flow through an area variation; c) decelerating flow through a pipe. All three cases will be examined as putative causes of accidents in fluid systems involving nitrous oxide rocket propellant. Results show that while both cases (a) and (c) readily exhibit metastable behavior and can be thought of as causes of BLEVE, case (b) does not show a similar propensity