An acetylene cylinder explosion: A most probable cause analysis

This paper considers the explosion of an acetylene gas cylinder, which occurred in 1993 in Sydney. The failure caused severe fragmentation of the cylinder and resulted in a fatality and property damage. This failure is outstanding in two respects: the violence of the failure which occurred and the fact that the explosion occurred where there were no apparent ignition sources present and several days, possibly weeks after filling. There is no other recorded failure of this type in the modern history of acetylene cylinder traffic.The paper describes the failure and the circumstances surrounding it, examines the nature of the explosion which occurred and seeks an explanation of the events. Since there is no physical evidence remaining of how the failure occurred, the analysis concentrates on an evaluation of the most probable cause of the incident.