Influence of the Protective Layer of Polyvinylchloride Resin on Failure of LPG Vessel Caused by Heat Radiation

The mechanism of damage to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessel caused by heat radiation was explored, the pressure and the burst pressure of the vessel with a protective layer of polyvinylchloride (PVC) resin were investigated, and a criterion for the failure of the LPG vessel was proposed. The industrial site of Nanjing Refinery was used for the case study, and the effect of the protective layer of PVC resin on the failure of the LPG tank was analyzed. The results showed that the rate of the rise in pressure was significantly reduced by the protective layer and that the time of failure increased rapidly according to the thickness of the protective layer. A highly reliable correlation between the time of failure and the thickness of the protective layer of PVC resin was developed by data fitting. As the theoretical basis for the design of the protective layer of the LPG vessel, a criterion for avoiding the failure of the LPG vessel and the domino effect was proposed to be when the time of failure was larger than the duration of the heat radiation.