Oscillatory thermal instability and the Bhopal disaster

A stability analysis is presented of the hydrolysis of methyl isocyanate (MIC) using a homogeneous flow reactor paradigm. The results simulate initiation of the thermal runaway that occurred inside the storage tank of MIC at the Bhopal Union Carbide plant in December 1984. The stability properties of the model indicate that the thermal runaway may have been initiated at a large amplitude, hard thermal oscillation at a subcritical Hopf bifurcation. This type of thermal misbehavior cannot be predicted using conventional thermal diagrams and classical ignition theory, and may be typical of liquid thermoreactive systems.

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► Investigation of the thermal runaway that led to the Bhopal disaster.
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► Thermal runaway is initiated at the onset of a hard thermal oscillation at a subcritical Hopf bifurcation.
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► This non-classical oscillatory thermal misbehavior may be generic in reactive organic liquids.
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► Results may also inform better management of organic peroxide based explosives.