Acetylene bottle in an SUV, All welders need to read this Options

[ellisor3]

I would think the shock wave alone would have done more than just blow one eardrum, probably could have killed him or caused massive internal injuries. That is like detonating a bomb in a bathroom, especially if the door was open the shock wave would have been directed there. I think it blew but he was no where near that door, or BS all together.

[Dr Evil]

After looking at the pics it is obvious that a rapid pressure increase happened inside, still baffled on how. The roof looks like it lifted off and was the weak point in the front that saved his life, if we are to believe his story. However, the pressure to bend metal and detach the roof should have been plenty enough to cause at least a concussion and not just hearing loss.

[JMKnight]

Our local weld shop would not sell any bottle, even co2, unless you picked it up in a pickup.

right!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

[Cap'n Krusty]

If a little oxygen allows clean burning, why is the flame so dirty when the torch is lit w/o the O2 being turned on? There's plenty of O2 in the ambient air. I agree there's more to this story than we've been told.

BTW, welders know that laying the acetylene bottle on its side allows liquid to exit through the valve, NOT a good thing.

The Cap'n

[zambezi]

If a little oxygen allows clean burning, why is the flame so dirty when the torch is lit w/o the O2 being turned on? There's plenty of O2 in the ambient air. I agree there's more to this story than we've been told.

BTW, welders know that laying the acetylene bottle on its side allows liquid to exit through the valve, NOT a good thing.

The Cap'n

Because the Acetylene is burning exactly as it is exiting the tip and not haveing a chance to mix with the oxygen. The oxygen has to be introduced before the flame (before the tip) to get the clean burn.

[ChrisFoley]

I agree with the theory that the concentration was only explosive inside the body panels, since the doors had already been opened. This is consistent with the size of the concussion based, on the owners injuries and the vehicle damage.
A uniform concentration at barely explosive levels is likely to burn very cleanly, so no soot.
I doubt the tank exploded - shrapnel would have probably killed the driver.

[SLITS]

All I had was an ether (quick start) can blow up on the back floorboard of a Type 1. Bugs put out some good heat. Momentary excitement on an icy road, in the dark, in Kansas ..... circle game.

Now if I had had electric windows ........... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blowup.gif)

[76-914]

All I had was an ether (quick start) can blow up on the back floorboard of a Type 1. Bugs put out some good heat. Momentary excitement on an icy road, in the dark, in Kansas ..... circle game.

Now if I had had electric windows ........... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blowup.gif)

Ron, If you don't mind sharing with us; On a scale of 1 to 10, what was the "pucker factor" at that moment? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[Dr Evil]

All I had was an ether (quick start) can blow up on the back floorboard of a Type 1. Bugs put out some good heat. Momentary excitement on an icy road, in the dark, in Kansas ..... circle game.

Now if I had had electric windows ........... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blowup.gif)

Better there than in your meth lab (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[scotty b]

you guys seem to be focusing on the soot when ignited. My point is look at the internal parts of the truck. Not in a soot marked way, but in the assumption that there was an exlposion creating a fireball, and NOTHING got melted or burned ??? This would lead me to believe there was no " ignition " it was a concussion " explosion" so what would have cause the gas trapped in the truck to have expanded so rapidly yet not ignite ?

[Richard Casto]

Quick someone call Mythbusters! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) I think it would be easy to test the clean burn scenario. My bet is that it happened as he said and that the process of "airing it out" allowed it to enter into a danger zone of having the right air fuel mixture, then he accidentally ignited it.

Richard

[Richard Casto]

you guys seem to be focusing on the soot when ignited. My point is look at the internal parts of the truck. Not in a soot marked way, but in the assumption that there was an exlposion creating a fireball, and NOTHING got melted or burned ??? This would lead me to believe there was no " ignition " it was a concussion " explosion" so what would have cause the gas trapped in the truck to have expanded so rapidly yet not ignite ?

There was a recent Mythbusters episode where they looked at "flying manhole covers" due to sewer explosions. They showed that you had to get the optimal mixture of air to methane to get a real explosion. They also showed how various factors could impact if it was a burn or an explosion. In a burn, the flamewall boundary doesn't move at a very high speed. For example it might be moving slower than the shock wave.

Here is the video for the small scale test in which you can see how the flamewall boundary moves, but not as fast as the shockwave (which blows the covers off before the flame gets there. The video stops before they show it, but they showed that oddly enough, when they added obstructions it actually increased the speed of the flamewall.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DokeJj0pxPw


Based upon how the body panels are pealed off, and how they showed that obstructions helped speed up the flamewall boundry I am thinking that he had a detonation (or at a minimum a very fast burn) within the interior cavities of the car. And that unfortunately he must have had a relatively optimal air/fuel mixture.

Richard

[IronHillRestorations]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif) I don't believe it. There's no way you could be in a vehicle that sustained that kind of damage and just get hearing loss. So it was enough of a blast to blow the body panels off the vehicle, and yet the blast did nothing to your eyes? C'mon this is (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif) I don't believe it. There's no way you could be in a vehicle that sustained that kind of damage and just get hearing loss. So it was enough of a blast to blow the body panels off the vehicle, and yet the blast did nothing to your eyes? C'mon this is (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bs.gif)

Occam's Razor. I believe it. Explosions can do funny things.

If the gas was in the rear panels and not the fore-cabin then I can see how hearing loss and concussion could be the damage the dude sustained. If he is faking it, he really went out of his way to fake it.

Zach

[Mark Henry]

Based upon how the body panels are pealed off, and how they showed that obstructions helped speed up the flamewall boundry I am thinking that he had a detonation (or at a minimum a very fast burn) within the interior cavities of the car. And that unfortunately he must have had a relatively optimal air/fuel mixture.

Richard

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) the power windows were the ignition source. The tank didn't blow.
That's why a propane tank isn't allowed inside an enclosed area, it isn't because the tank will explode, it's the leaking fuel combined with air that will go boom.
I bet there wasn't much gas in the panels, but it was enough.