The present study focused on the consequence analysis of the severe transportation accident which took place on June 29th, 2009 in Viareggio (Italy). The accident followed the derailment of a train carrying 14 tank cars of LPG. The first tank car was punctured after the derailment releasing its entire content, that ignited causing an extended and severe flash-fire, that set on fire several houses, causing extended damage and 31 fatalities. A map of the damage following the flash-fire was obtained from the images collected after the accident. Con-ventional simplified tools for consequence assessment were used to reproduce the results, yielding to overconservative results. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was also developed in order to perform a more detailed simulation. The presence of obstacles (e.g. walls, trees) and the shape of buildings around the railway line were taken into account, showing a good performance in the identification of the area affected by the flash-fire that followed the LPG release.
Safety of LPG rail transportation in the perspective of the Viareggio accident
TUGNOLI, ALESSANDRO;COZZANI, VALERIO
2010
Abstract
The present study focused on the consequence analysis of the severe transportation accident which took place on June 29th, 2009 in Viareggio (Italy). The accident followed the derailment of a train carrying 14 tank cars of LPG. The first tank car was punctured after the derailment releasing its entire content, that ignited causing an extended and severe flash-fire, that set on fire several houses, causing extended damage and 31 fatalities. A map of the damage following the flash-fire was obtained from the images collected after the accident. Con-ventional simplified tools for consequence assessment were used to reproduce the results, yielding to overconservative results. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was also developed in order to perform a more detailed simulation. The presence of obstacles (e.g. walls, trees) and the shape of buildings around the railway line were taken into account, showing a good performance in the identification of the area affected by the flash-fire that followed the LPG release.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
