Recently, the National Defense Science and Technology Industry Bureau sent a thank-you letter to the university and spoke highly of the important contribution made by Beijing Institute of Technology in the investigation of the special major fire and explosion accident at the dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai Company in Tianjin Port's “8•12” company.
With a high degree of political awareness and overall awareness, the school gives full play to its advantages in explosion industry, actively organizes its members to participate in accident investigations, the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology, and teachers such as Qian Xinming and Wang Cheng, keeping in mind the mission and being brave enough to take the responsibility. Gains and losses, overcoming difficulties, going deep into the front line, and continuously fighting with high-level, professional scientific analysis have played an important role in identifying the direct cause of the accident and have been highly recognized by the accident investigation organization of the State Council.
On August 12, 2015, a fire and explosion accident occurred in the dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai International Logistics Co., Ltd. in Tianjin Port, Binhai New Area, Tianjin City, resulting in 165 deaths, 8 missing persons, and 798 injuries. This is a particularly serious safety production accident, causing a great deal of domestic and international attention. After the accident, the Party Central Committee and the State Council attached great importance. According to the spirit of the central leadership's important instructions and related laws and regulations, the Ministry of Public Security, with the approval of the State Council, took the lead to establish the “8•12” State Council’s Tianjin Port. The dangerous goods warehouse of Ruihai Company is particularly important. The fire and explosion investigation team conducted an in-depth investigation of the accident.
"450 tons of TNT equivalent!"
Beijing Institute of Technology not only owns China's only national key laboratory for explosives, but also has reached the world's leading level in research fields such as explosives, and has long participated in the investigation of major explosion accidents in the country. In the face of this particularly serious fire and explosion accident, the country’s Summoning is the mission and responsibility.
After the explosion accident, North Polytechnic Co., Ltd. organized and coordinated the work for the first time according to the requirements of superiors. Professor Qian Xinming, the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology, was asked to join the “8·12” accident investigation team of the State Council. After receiving the instructions from the higher authorities, Professor Qian Xinming interrupted all arrangements for his holiday for the first time and rushed to the company on August 18. Tianjin accident site to work.
The site of the fire and explosion accident was widespread, and the explosion was extremely serious. The variety of hazardous chemicals and the serious pollution on site caused great technical difficulties for the investigation and attracted great attention at home and abroad. The accident company Ruihai Company's management is chaotic, all information materials are destroyed, and the accident investigation starts from scratch. All these have brought unprecedented challenges to the accident investigation team.
Faced with such a difficult and complex situation, Prof. Qian Xinming, Prof. Wang Cheng and other members of the investigation team, in line with the principle of seeking truth from facts, objectiveness and impartiality, and scientific and rigorous work principles, broke through routines and carried out accident investigations in a solid and effective manner. Professor Qian Xinming is mainly responsible for the accidental explosion combustion mechanism, explosion process analysis and explosive equivalent simulation. Professor Wang Cheng used the self-developed explosion-precision high-precision large-scale simulation software ExVisual to simulate the explosion process and obtained the first accident. The explosion energy is about 15 tons of TNT equivalent, and the second explosion energy is about 430 tons of TNT equivalent. Several small-scale explosions have also occurred during the period under consideration, and the total energy of the accident explosion is determined to be approximately 450 tons of TNT equivalent. The core work of the accident investigation technique is responsible for making important contributions to reveal the truth of the accident.
Reproduce the "origin of fire"
In any fire accident, determining the source of fire is the starting point and key for all investigations. However, the “8•12” fire and explosion accident at Tianjin Port has a large amount of energy and long burning time, which makes it difficult to find evidence for reference at the explosion site. It poses great challenges for the determination of the fire source. Therefore, at the beginning of the accident investigation, it was determined that the fire material and the ignition source became the technical core of the entire accident investigation.
There were only two obscure fire videos left for the investigation team. The investigation team collected information about the hazardous materials on site from the customs, transportation, safety supervision and other departments, and tested and compared the flames of the fire with field tests. However, a large number of test results are quite different from the actual situation of the accident. After numerous failures, Prof. Qian Xinming boldly proposed the assumption that the fire was nitrocellulose, and designed it under the support of the National Defense Bureau. The relevant test program and commissioned the authority to carry out thermal stability testing of acid-containing dry nitrocellulose and large-scale nitrocellulose ignition test. Through scientific experiments, the flame structure and characteristics of the incinerators at the scene of the accident were compared. At the same time, detailed information on weather conditions, storage conditions, production and transportation operations analysis, etc. were used to confirm that nitrocellulose was the ignition substance. " In the key point of this argument, the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology of Northern Polytechnic University has played an important role and has become the only technical support unit mentioned in the accident investigation report.
It is worth mentioning that Professor Qian Xinming, who was “in a word” at a crucial moment, has made important contributions to the technical investigation of several major and major explosion accidents in China. For example, during the “6.3” particularly significant fire and explosion accident in Baoyuan Fengfeng, Jilin Province, he made important contributions to the accidents by distinguishing between “ammonia explosion-induced fires and fire-induced ammonia explosions” through comparative tests and numerical simulations. In the "11.22" special major explosion accident in Huangdao, Qingdao, he passed the on-site test at the East Garden Base of the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology, which perfectly reproduced the explosion process and made a quantification of the damage and accident mitigation. An important contribution. All the above work was highly evaluated by the accident investigation team of the State Council.
The use of scientific methods to reveal the truth of the accident in a complex and particularly serious fire and explosion accident was not a success overnight. They have also made it possible for the North Polytechnic people to make full efforts. The explosion in China has created a national and international feeling of safety barriers for the country.
The State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology of the Beijing Institute of Technology is the only research platform for the highest level of explosion technology in China and has an important influence in the field of explosion research at home and abroad. Over the years, the laboratory has been pursuing the major needs of national security and the development of explosive science and technology disciplines. It has made important contributions in personnel training, scientific research, and the development of protection equipment, it has also directly promoted the development of disciplines and technological innovations in the field of civil explosives such as the prevention and control of explosion disasters.
At present, the laboratory relies on the "dynamical mechanical behavior of complex media/structure" National Natural Science Foundation Innovation Research Group and New Concept/New Warhead Technology" "Malfunction and Protection Materials" Three National Innovation Teams Has become China's high-level talents cultivation base in explosive science and technology.
In recent years, in the field of civil explosive safety, the laboratory has not only established chemical reaction models for chemical dangerous goods, heat conduction and radiation models, thermal ignition and detonation models, detonation models, and various materials under the coupling of thermal-force-chemical reactions. A series of high-level explosion response models were constructed, and the calculation format of physical quantities for high-precision calculation of explosions was also constructed. A high-precision calculation method for the interaction between complex boundaries and multi-material interfaces was proposed, as well as high-precision large-scale real-time simulation software. In addition, the established gas explosion, dust explosion, condensed phase explosion and experimental system can better simulate and reproduce the closed conditions, semi-closed conditions and the evolution of the explosion accident under open conditions.
These research results provide an important theoretical basis and technical support for the study of the causes and evolution laws of explosion accidents. The analysis and investigation of multiple major explosion accidents such as special major fires and explosions at the “8•12” Ruihai company dangerous goods warehouse in Tianjin port It played a very important role.
Engaging in explosive science and technology, the road is hard and accompanied by danger. But in the Beijing Institute of Technology, a school that inherits the Yan'an spirit and is committed to military defense, a generation of North Polytechnic people always take the responsibility of serving the needs of the country as their own task and devote themselves to research. To accumulate in silence, to make the country strong at the time when the country and people are in distress and need.
