Posted on 10/02/2012 12:11:48 PM PDT by marktwain
Solvents evaporating, rags ignite, a small fire ensues. The door is opened, more oxygen is allowed into the room, a flash-over occurs. Not an explosion as such but close enough to a "low explosive" so as not to matter. A flash fire would also explain how the wife burned her face and hands.
Regards,
GtG
Something does not smell right, a small bottle of powder solvent is not going to blow down half a house and move a concrete patio slab. Wife was outdoors, he was inside when something very energetic let loose. Sounds like the fire marshal is busy shoveling "horse byproduct" over the unlikely event.
G
Powder solvent is probably pretty close in energy density to gasoline. Dynamite has an energy density of about 7.5 MJ/kg. Gasoline has an energy density of 44.4 MJ/kg. So, pound for pound gasoline has more than 6 times the energy of dynamite. However, gasoline is not an explosive and dynamite is not a fuel, so they serve purposes that are mutually exclusive for the most part.
If your car/truck engine ever "knocks" the gasoline is detonating as an explosive. Smooth combustion as a fuel is only a few degrees of spark timing away from explosive combustion. The nitroglycerin in dynamite is not detonated by burning thus if you don't mine the expense, you can burn dynamite in a nice cheery fire in a wood stove.
Under the right conditions flour, dust (grain, sawdust, coal), and finely divided metal particles as well as various hydrocarbon vapors can be made to explode (Ie: detonate where the flame front achieves transonic velocity).
In general vapor media must be evenly dispersed in a containing volume with enough oxygen to completely burn the vapor. Too rich (more vapor then O2) and the flame front will not achieve maximum velocity. Too lean (not enough vapor to react with the O2) and the flame front will extinguish prematurely. The correct mixture is referred to as the "stoichiometric mixture" and is dependent on the quantitative relationship between reactants and products so that all of the reactants are converted to end products with a maximum release of energy by the chemical reaction.
Dust explosions are not overly fussy about stoichiometric conditions and are therefore more likely to occur under everyday conditions such as a flour/grain mill or a coal mine. You can also use "dust" to greatly boost the power of a small bit of conventional explosive.
Regards,
GtG
Exactly correct. I suspect that something in the gun room came close enought to optimum conditions to create a low explosive effect.
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