Consequence Analysis to Buildings from Bursting Cylindrical Vessels Enrique Gonza ´ lez Ferrada ´ s, Fernando Dı ´az Alonso, Juan Francisco Sa ´ nchez Pe ´ rez, Marta Doval Min ˜arro, Agustı´n Min ˜ ana Aznar, and Jose ´ Ruiz Gimeno Grupo de Investigacio ´n de Seguridad e Higiene en la Industria. Departamento de Ingenierı´a Quı ´mica. Universidad de Murcia, Campus Universitario de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain; ferdiaz@um.es (for correspondence) Published online 13 April 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/prs.10311 Damage effects to buildings must be taken into account when performing consequence analysis, because people indoors can be affected by such dam- age. The objective of this article is to provide a meth- odology for estimating damage to buildings from the pressure wave produced by bursting cylindrical ves- sels, by combining characteristic overpressure- impulse-distance curves with PROBIT equations. This methodology allows the damage to be shown in the same diagram as the overpressure, impulse, and dis- tance. Diagrams and equations are presented to determine minor damage to brick buildings of four or less floors (broken windows, displacement of doors and window frames, tile displacement, etc), major structural damage (cracks in walls, collapse of some walls), and collapse (the damage is so extensive that the building is partially or totally demolished). Ó 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 28: 179–189, 2009 Keywords: vessel burst; tank rupture; cylinder explosion; consequence analysis; damage on buildings INTRODUCTION Examples of accidents produced by vessel bursting with catastrophic consequences can be found in some databases (as MHIDAS or MARS, for example) or in the literature [1–6]. Such accidents show the sig- nificant risks of industrial activities where there are vessels operating at extreme conditions of pressure or temperature. So that the appropriate safety meas- ures are taken, it is important to predict the conse- quences of such accidents. To predict the consequen- ces of such accidents, characteristic curves [1] can be used. These curves are shown in Figure 1, where the characteristic curve for a hypothetical cylinder burst releasing 10 10 J of explosive energy is highlighted. This event is used in this article as an example of the application of the proposed methodology. The characteristic curves provide the most rele- vant information for explosions, namely the rela- tionship between the overpressure, impulse and dis- tance. The main models aim at calculating the over- pressure and impulse. See the Baker model [7,8], which was also used previously [1] to obtain the characteristic curves for cylindrical vessel burst, as they are the main parameters responsible for causing damage [9]. Instead of running the model once for each distance from the explosion to obtain the over- pressure and impulse and then to compare them with certain damage criteria by using tables [6] and PRO- BIT equations [10], characteristic overpressure- impulse-distance curves allow all these operations to be carried out in only one step. In this article PROBIT equations are used, because they relate the magni- tudes of the danger (overpressure and impulse) to the percentage of the exposed buildings that would suffer a certain degree of damage. PROBIT equations are one of the most widely used methodologies to determine the extent of damage [11,12]. From the combination of the characteristic curves, developed with PROBIT equations, damage can be easily and directly assessed. In this article, the necessary infor- mation is provided to determine minor damage to brick buildings of four or less floors (broken win- dows, displacement of doors and window frames, tile displacement, etc), major structural damage (cracks in This work was supported by the Spanish General Directorate for Civil Pro- tection and Emergencies (DGPCE) and the Spanish National Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene (INSHT). Ó 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Safety Progress (Vol.28, No.2) June 2009 179