Citation

Sadee C, Samuels DE, O'Brien TP. J. Occup. Accid. 1977; 1(3): 203-235.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

On 1 June 1974 an explosion occurred at the Nypro (UK) Ltd. plant at Flixborough (Lincolnshire) resulting in the death of 28 employees and injuries to others working at the plant and severe structural damage. Injuries to the public and damage to property also occurred beyond the plant boundary. Fires on the plant resulting from the explosion burned for several days. The explosion followed the ignition of a cloud of cyclohexane vapour mixed with air which was produced by the failure of one of the pipes between five inter-connected oxidation vessels containing cyclohexane at 150[deg] C and a pressure of 1 MPa.This paper summarises the results of a survey carried out by the authors to assess the energy of the explosion from the structural damage which had occurred.It was concluded that the blast effect was similar to that produced by 16 +/- 2 tonnes of TNT exploded at a height of 45 +/- 24 metres above the ground. Values of the mass of TNT outside this range lead to unrealistic heights for the centre of the detonation.It was estimated that about 30 tons of cyclohexane, equivalent to the contents of two of the oxidation vessels, had formed an explosive cloud. This cloud came into contact with a source of ignition and subsequently burned to produce a violent explosion with a TNT yield of 5%.