Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations cowski 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.
Whether or not you think the rumour has any credibility at all, it's worth knowing that it's circulating.

An awful lot of the mire that my home country (the UK - and I don't even think we're the worst example of this) has got ourselves into over the last few decades has been deepened by an assumption that people in other parts of the world are thinking the same things and "knowing" the same things that we do.

A.
 
Any explanations for the series of small explosions happening up and down the length of the warehouse before the main explosion? You can see them in this video starting at about 23 seconds.



This isn't the best video of these explosions. There was one from the side of the warehouse. I just can't find it right now.
 

and Billion$ in damage... and life lost.

Dik
 
I think that this is one of the definitive views of the explosion:

It almost looks like the fire originated in the warehouse adjacent to the one that was completely obliterated.

Some stills:
6A2CD700-F78D-49C7-8C45-E088B4009E64_nczhsb.jpg


6A464B4F-3DA4-46AD-A430-38DE1D4AACA9_ehdgcf.jpg


0E33B107-1B51-4F84-B968-68ED56A47798_btl2a6.jpg


5532FF17-6B7F-4A6B-8F27-A51AC6832B0C_qenoii.jpg
 
Spartan5 said:
It almost looks like the fire originated in the warehouse adjacent to the one that was completely obliterated.
Click to expand...

That's was what I said in my 8 Aug 20 05:43 post...

"Also, from the videos, it looked like the initial fire/explosion could have come from that first warehouse, closer to the end of the pier, as seen in the aerial photos."

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
 
*shrug*
 
I was just saying that I agree with your observation.

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
 
I hear that the power of the explosion was 1/7 of Hiroshima bomb.

luis
 
More like smaller than 1/13


However, the explosive power equivalent used to establish that is TNT, but that calculation uses only the total explosive energy available, and not its time duration. TNT's detonation velocity is 2 1/2 times faster than ammonium nitrate's (6900 m/s vs. 2700 m/s). While the Hiroshima bomb was "equivalent" to 15 kilotons of TNT and this one was 1155 tons of TNT, the Hiroshima bomb's instantaneous detonation velocity was orders of magnitude faster that TNT's 6900 m/s.

The Beirut explosion therefore was on the order 50 milliseconds to complete, but the Hiroshima bomb explosion was in the sub-microseconds, ignoring the time required to implode the uranium in the first place.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
A new article states the explosives factory in Mozambique made no such purchase of this AN from Batumi Georgia. This Igor G., the then owner of the Rhosus, has gone off radar. Limassol - Cyprus is crawling with all manner of seedy people.
 
The British Imperial gallon is 4.54 L (160 fl oz), while the US Customary gallon is 3.78 L (128 fl oz).
Click to expand...
160 fl oz / 128 fl oz = 5/4 This was the ratio of Imperial gallons to US gallons that was always taught in Canadian schools.
But
The true ratio is:
4.54 ml / 3.78 ml = 1.201058 (1.2:1)
For most practical purposes 6/5 Imperial gallons to US gallons.
I have never seen this conversion in a pre-SI Canadian text book.
Even text books that included the proper comparison of the Imperial oz with the US oz forgot the difference and reported the erroneous 4/5 ratio for gallon conversion.
Pre SI, everyone in Canadian schools was taught that the Imperial gallon was larger than the US gallon.
Only a very few learned that the US ounce was larger than the Imperial ounce.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
We were taught that it was about 20% less, and that 5 cups American was about 4 cups. It was not an exact amount. It was also generally understood that the smaller gallon allowed Americans to overcharge for their smaller volume (Canadian Nationalism?).

I was not aware that the US ounce was larger than the Imperial ounce (even today). How many ounces to a cup (8 Imperial) and how many cups to a gallon (16 Imperial) in US measure? Where does the increase in volume for an ounce come from? Troy ounces for weight measure?

Dik
 
Imperial gallon: 4.54609 L per US gallon: 231 in^3 = 3.78541178 per
Ratio is 1.20094993

The issue is that the fluid oz aren't the same

Imperial: 4.54609*L/160 = 28.4131 mL
US: 3.785411784*L/128 = 29.5735 mL

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
If comparing to the Hiroshima bomb, keep in mind it was intentionally detonated in the air to maximize effects.
 
AN hast to be moved around the world constantly, how does storage usually work?

How does storage usually work in harbours, often close to large cities?

Btw, my uneducated guess is that there plenty people in Libanon who know how to safely store AN, they where just not given the one or two million euro + ongoing expenses to do it.
 
The software just swallowed an edit so here goes again:
I skimmed these german regulations on storing AN (
- for smaller mounts >1t, seperate in piles <25t
- for larger amounts, separate into piles <3000t
- lots of fire protection - on site fire brigade, sufficent water supply

- protection of AN from weather influence (moisture, heat, cold)
- protection from heat due to machines, heating pipework, chimneys ...
- a few details regarding specific machine design

- In case of fire, only water works
- removing heat is paramount: cool non-burning material with water, remove burning material if possible, enable ventilation to remove hot exhaust from the site

- some details on fire protection if works are carried out

In Beirut, how long between the initial fire and the first explosion? Could a proper sprinkler system have prevented the AN explosion after the initial fire?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

thebard3
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Plant explosion in Louisville kills 2
Replies
1
Views
2K
drwebb
drwebb
Murph 9000
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Natural gas explosion at the Realty Tower Building
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
Murph 9000
Murph 9000
J
  • Question Question
Airliner crash in India
Replies
0
Views
5K
JohnLloydJones
J
dik
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Explosion in Pennesylvania
Replies
14
Views
675
drwebb
drwebb
drwebb
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Explosion Cause
Replies
1
Views
263
hacksaw
hacksaw

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top