Exploding 02 cylinder video

[Sarah]

This poor guy lost his arm. We hope this serves as a reminder to be careful handling those 02 cylinders.

I noticed the narration said he used a crescent wrench to slightly unloosen the cylinder valve to let the 02 leak out slowly.

So what do you think caused the explosion? Adiabatic compression?

[seasnake]

Oops.

Another good question: what would've been the proper way to drain the gas from the cylinder if the valve would not function properly?

[BamaCaveDiver]

Same guys who discovered the neck cracks in the AL cylinder just back from hydro got bored one day and decided to do some "combustability" testing. They were able to get every make of oring to ignite with pressurized air. The 100% O2 in that bottle would have required much less pressure to ignite. The only safe way to drain the cylinder would have been to take the time to get the valve functioning. The guy in the video was:
a. In a hurry
b. An idiot who had no business around pressurized O2
c. An experienced tech who got complacent and then paid for his mistake.
d. All of the above

[Zero]

I heard just from the pressure when O2 gets to the end of the line it spikes to about 300 degrees. That is well over flash point for many substances and once one starts all of them will go in an O2 fire.
But for a bit of fun try liquid oxygen on a fire That really gets the cooking done fast. http://web.archive.org/web/200210032...rdue.edu/~ghg/ There a few pics here.

Matt

[seasnake]

I think they should've set the O2 cylinder with the non-functioning valve up on a hill top and shot it with a rifle ... Like in that video from that other thread ... Would've saved arms ...