Abstract
The paper starts with a brief review of the incidence of major explosions in the cargo tanks of large crude oil tankers, and in particular those associated with tank cleaning. A description is given of the portable equipment which was developed to measure and record continuously the changing concentrations at different points inside a cargo tank.
The general pattern of mixture strength during a round voyage from the U.K. to the Middle East is explained. From this it appears that the most potentially hazardous part of the voyage is during the tank cleaning operation and the changes which occur during this part of the cycle are described.
Finally, various methods of controlling the cargo tank atmosphere during cleaning are discussed. The investigations are by no means complete and this paper is by way of being a progress report rather than the final conclusions of the work.
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