A severe explosion in a fertilizer plant occurred in the small town of West, Texas on April 17, 2013. The explosion devastated the populated neighborhood surrounding the plant. About 150 buildings were damaged or destroyed as a result of this explosion. Most of the buildings were single family residences; though two schools, a two-story apartment building, and a nursing home building were part of the buildings that sustained severe damage. This sudden occurrence of industrial explosion provides an opportunity to document performance of buildings to blast loading.
The documentation effort will obtain on-site technical data of damage, construction, and materials of buildings and variation of damage from the epicenter of the blast. The data will include on-site, aerial and satellite photographs and observations. In addition, current blast loading requirements will be reviewed and recorded for comparison with collected data. The field data will be collected before the damaged area is cleaned and the debris is removed. These data will be analyzed and organized for later use by the investigator to understand blast loads and response of buildings. The investigator plans to prepare a poster for a science museum in Dallas and make presentation at a professional meeting.
An explosion of a fertilizer plant occurred in the town of West, Texas, on Wednesday April 17, 2013, devastating a populated neighborhood. Fifteen people were killed, and about 160 people were injured. About 150 buildings were damaged in the explosion; the damage to surrounding homes and businesses was estimated to exceed $100 million. The National Science Foundation funded this study through a RAPID funding mechanism under Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering program to collect on-site technical data of the explosion and to gain knowledge of blast loadings and structural responses from this unprecedented explosion. Therefore, this research documented the building damages caused by the West fertilizer plant explosion and the building constructions and materials used. Three different types of research data (building damage conditions and/or failure modes, building constructions and materials, and standoff distances) were collected through a search of online records, post-disaster field inspection, and review of documents from The West News, a local newspaper for the city of West. For the post-disaster field inspection, the research team visited the West fertilizer plant explosion site three times (on April 23, 2013, April 26, 2013, and May 24, 2013) to obtain field pictures and collect other documents. In addition to the documentation, this research evaluated the technical information for the explosion, including the blast loadings (the air-blast incident overpressures and the ground shocks) on different buildings with respect to the standoff distances. Through this study, the research team found that the fertilizer plant explosion at West, Texas generated both the air-blast shockwave and the ground shock. The blast loading caused by the air-blast shockwave (the air-blast incident overpressure) was the dominant factor to account for the damages of building structures surrounding the fertilizer plant at West, Texas. But, some field observed damages at West, Texas had to be explained by considering the effects of the ground shock. By integrating the ground shock and the air blast shockwave effects, this study proposed a 4-scale blast-induced damage severity evaluation system, recommended the efficient blast loading calculation methods for both the air-blast incident overpressure and the ground shock peak particle velocity, and provided an association between the blast loadings and the blast induced damages. A step-by-step analysis procedure was recommended for planning, designing, and constructing a new explosive facility or a new community close to an existing explosive facility. The documentation and analyses resulted from this research can serve as the basis for a better understanding of the blast loadings and structural responses, which will improve the way buildings are designed, constructed, maintained, and used, improve tools and guidance for industry and safety officials, assist in revisions to codes, standards, and practices, and improve public safety. All the documentation and analyses data of this research are stored in electronic format on the PI’s computer hard drive. For the disseminations, two journal articles based on the results of this research have been submitted to ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. And a presentation of the research findings has been conducted at Tongji University in China to a group of international researchers and students interested in hazard mitigations. For the broader impact, the PI of this research has been interviewed by one of the largest newspaper in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (The Star-Telegrams) for comments and research findings on this disaster (www.star-telegram.com/2014/04/16/5740704/learning-lessons-from-the-west.html).
