BLEVE: Theory and Importance in Oil Recovery

BLEVEs as phenomena are defined as extremely violent explosions that may occur when liquids and high- density fluids under pressure are subject to a failure in the containing vessel. Some examples are given and the theory of BLEVEs explained. Oil recovery and carbon capture and storage have made BLEVE relevant today. likely to be the explanation (or at least one of the explana- tions) of BLEVEs. A brief explanation of this theory can be given with the aid of Fig. (1), which is a diagram of the rela- tionship between the pressure in a substance and the volume it occupies as a liquid, gas or fluid at constant temperature, i.e. the p-V cross-section of the phase diagram. These iso- therms were first observed for carbon dioxide by Thomas Andrews, working in the north of Ireland.