I was just wondering...
I was walking across the office courtyard today and watched some men "roll" away some of those tall, slender propane gas tanks. They were rolling them along the concrete tile ground and I was wondering if those gas tanks ever exploded because of treating them this way (as opposed to a safer way, e.g. loading them on a dolly and carrying them that way) is there a chance those men could die?
Or is the rounded shoulder of the top of the gas tanks a design that ensures that any explosion would occur in only one direction?
That got me thinking why do grenades shatter in all directions making a whole zone unsafe, as opposed to just 1 or 2 conical blast areas.
Can anyone help me with this? Is there a designed direction of likely explosion with those tall slender gas tanks that they use to deliver LPG to your house? I remember seeing in movies like James Bond that they jump on one bronco style and knock off the cap causing it to become a projectile. Is that based on anything real at all?
I was walking across the office courtyard today and watched some men "roll" away some of those tall, slender propane gas tanks. They were rolling them along the concrete tile ground and I was wondering if those gas tanks ever exploded because of treating them this way (as opposed to a safer way, e.g. loading them on a dolly and carrying them that way) is there a chance those men could die?
Or is the rounded shoulder of the top of the gas tanks a design that ensures that any explosion would occur in only one direction?
That got me thinking why do grenades shatter in all directions making a whole zone unsafe, as opposed to just 1 or 2 conical blast areas.
Can anyone help me with this? Is there a designed direction of likely explosion with those tall slender gas tanks that they use to deliver LPG to your house? I remember seeing in movies like James Bond that they jump on one bronco style and knock off the cap causing it to become a projectile. Is that based on anything real at all?
-
The men are in no danger really, unless something very hard hits the tanks going very fast. these tanks are made of very strong materials, and with all the pressure inside, it's very hard to put a dent in one of them even without considering the strength of the metal itsself. if the valve at the top is knocked off cleanly, the cylinder can become a ballistic missile capable of punching through cinderblock walls, but that break must be clean to ensure that the tank won't spiral off in some random direction. as for grenades, they are designed with specific weak areas in the body so that the metal its comprised of will shatter aand send as much twisted metal in all directions as possible when the explosives detonate.
-
To the point of one of these high pressure tanks has the valve knocked off. Mythbusters did a test on one of these tanks. When they knocked the valve off it rocketed through a cinder block wall.