Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations GregLocock on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Large explosion in Beirut... 23

Status
Not open for further replies.
JohnRBaker

JohnRBaker

Mechanical
Jun 1, 2006
35,613
Watch the various videos. The shock wave was amazing.

Mass Damage In Beirut As Explosions Rip Through Downtown

Videos on social media showed massive explosions and widespread damage near the port in Lebanon’s capital city. Multiple outlets are reporting several casualties.


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
One rumored cause was a possible nitrate storage facility explosion.
 
There's another report saying that the government had been storing illegal munitions, which they've been confiscating from smugglers, in warehouses near the port facilities.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
JohnRBaker said:
There's another report saying that the government had been storing illegal munitions, which they've been confiscating from smugglers, in warehouses near the port facilities.
Click to expand...

Good thing the TSA just confiscates shampoo and not bombs, isn't it?
 
The report I heard sounded like these were smugglers picked-up out in the Mediterranean running guns and ammo to various factions in the Middle-East.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
Well, they ain’t so smug anymore then...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)


 
"I will not rest until we find the person responsible for what happened, to hold him accountable and impose the most severe penalties," Prime Minister Hassan Diab said.

Diab said it was "unacceptable" that a shipment of ammonium nitrate estimated at 2,750 tons had been in warehouse for six years without "preventive measures" in place to protect it. The chemical compound, which is commercially available, is used widely in fertilizers and explosives.


Video of the explosion - This explosion

ammonium nitrate has a long history of unplanned explosions

Someone already added it to the list of ammonium nitrate disasters

Fred
 
Raw, unadultaated Ammonium Nitrate is not an explosive. Add approx 7% by weight diesel fuel to it and it becomes a different matter. There is a lot we are not being told here.
 
Trump is now suggesting that it may have been an "attack"...

Trump says massive explosion in Beirut appears to be an attack but local officials are still investigating


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
Watch the video in the item below. There appears to be a large number of smaller secondary explosions, possible ammunition being cooked-off, between the first explosion and the second, much larger explosion. As I posted earlier, there are reports that the warehouse that exploded, had been used to store 'munitions' taken from smugglers.

Beirut explosions: What we know so far


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
Raw, unadultaated Ammonium Nitrate is not an explosive.
Click to expand...
Smaller quantities are not explosive.
When there is a fire in large quantities such as shiploads and large warehouses, the internal temperature rises to the point that it will explode. (Without diesel fuel)

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
A tragic disaster. Though macabrely fascinating from an engineering view...

The video above is incredible. Most of us have probably seen video footage of large scale explosions before however looks like it is straight out of Hollywood's special effects studios. The way buildings are ripped apart and upwards as the blast wave passes is stunning and horrifying.
 
For a first time in a 'bang' video I didn't have to scream at the vidiographer to duck-an-cover.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
miningman said:
Raw, unadultaated Ammonium Nitrate is not an explosive.
Click to expand...
To paraphrase a entertaining chemistry blogger I read: "you don't go packing that many nitrogen atoms together without expecting it to eventually decided to unpack itself and everything around it".

Or to quote:
Lest you think, though, that explosions of ammonium nitrate facilities are a sepia-toned relic, that last link above will show you that every decade since has featured one or more detonations, all the way up to the huge Tianjin explosions in late 2015. Basically, any fire near a storage area for ammonium nitrate should be considered a potential disaster, and the two main options, which have to be weighed against each other depending on ones own situation, would appear to be extinguishing such a blaze as quickly as possible or getting the hell out of the entire vicinity, keeping in mind that said vicinity might have a radius of several miles.
Click to expand...


If you are bored then there is plenty to read here about some insanely explosive compounds:
 
In the first video in the huffpost link, we see at first a fire (or something else with lots of smoke), then a large explosion with a red cloud and then the HUGE explsion with the ball shaped shockwave (?)

Does the red cloud from the first explsion indicate that something else was exploding at first, and maybe the silos (seem to be silos at the epicenter) with the nitrate second, or is this too speculative?
 
This article says that a Russian-owned, Moldovan-flagged cargo ship was transporting the amonimum-nitrate from Georgia to Mozambique when it was forced to make an unscheduled port call in Beruit.

While there the ship failed inspection, the owner abanonded the ship and crew and the crew left. The Lebanese officials siezed the cargo of amonimum-nitrate and piled it up in a building in the port. And there it sat for 6 years.
 
The red cloud is nitrogen tetroxide, released from decomposition of the nitrate due to high temperature. As waross said, get the nitrate hot enough it starts to decompose, and if the pile is big enough the decomposition can transition from a slow deflagration to a detonation.
 
Another earlier Texas disaster.
The 1947 Texas Disaster

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

thebard3
  • Question
Plant explosion in Louisville kills 2
Replies
1
Views
1K
drwebb
drwebb
Murph 9000
  • Locked
  • Question
Natural gas explosion at the Realty Tower Building
2
Replies
20
Views
455
Murph 9000
Murph 9000
dik
  • Locked
  • Question
Explosion in Pennesylvania 2
Replies
14
Views
182
drwebb
drwebb
drwebb
  • Locked
  • Question
Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Explosion Cause 1
Replies
1
Views
78
hacksaw
hacksaw
MJCronin
  • Locked
  • Question
Fatal explosion and fire at blending plant in Australia - October 12, 2023
Replies
0
Views
121
MJCronin
MJCronin

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top Bottom