Showerthought: a 1/16 inch tube leak dumped 40,000 lbs of steam in under 2 minutes, and I can't stop thinking about it
I was reading through an old accident report from a plant in Texas City last week and it said a tube failure on a high pressure drum let go 40,000 lbs of steam in less than 2 minutes. I've been working drums for 14 years and I always figured a small tube leak would just whistle and give you time to shut down. Turns out once that jet cuts loose it can widen fast and the whole thing flashes off before anyone can react. Made me rethink how casual some of us get about tube inspections on turnaround. Anyone here actually seen one blow like that in person?