Chapter 20 Fire and explosion hazards

To be able to evaluate requirements and know when to seek further assistance, an engineer needs to have sufficient knowledge of general fire and explosion hazards. This chapter provides an overview of these hazards, covering combustion, pyrolysis, diffusive fire, steady state buoyant fires, jet fire, pool fires, and flashover through to deflagration, detonation and boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions. Relevant legislation and key terms of reference, such as lower and upper explosion limits and minimum explosible concentrations, are introduced. Potential ignition sources, and classification of hazardous zone extents for gases, liquids and dusts, are identified and explained. Prevention and protection is discussed with the various risk assessment methods and the use of estimating probability and consequence to determine residual risk against acceptable risk criteria.