Event
- Event ID
- 308
- Quality
- Description
- During a test of an 8 foot scale tank loaded with LH2, the tank burst at 77 psi (ca. 5.3 bar) destroying the test installation. No fire or explosion occurred and the area control was successfully recovered within 24 hours.
[Ordin, NASA (1974)] - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- -
- Main component involved?
- Lh2 Storage Vessel
- How was it involved?
- Rupture
- Initiating cause
- Manufacturing Defect/Error
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The IMMEDIATE CAUSE was the rupture of the tank.
The test was programmed for 79 psi maximum and the tank burst at 77 psi. The report does not mention it, but a test at 79 psi would suggest that the nominal working pressure (NWP) of the tank was this value or above. Therefore, its Maximum Allowed Working Pressure (MAWP) would have been much higher (it is usually between 2 and 2.5 ties the NWP). This indicates a failure far below the load capability assumed by design.
The ROOT CAUSE was vey probably a manufacturing error. An additional FACTOR contributing to an escalation (the whole testing facility was destroyed) was the lack of an emergency recovery plan for these situations.
Facility
- Application
- Non-Road Vehicles
- Sub-application
- Aerospace
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- LH2 tank
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 0.53
- Design pressure (MPa)
- <1.0
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 6 in <br />
P. L. Ordin, Review of hydrogen accidents and incidents in NASA operations, 1974, NASA TM X-71565<br />
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740020344Lowesmith et al., Safety issues of the liquefaction, storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen: An analysis of incidents and HAZIDS, Int. J. Hydrogen energy (2014) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.08.002
Hankinson and Lowesmith, Qualitative Risk Assessment of Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation, FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.10 (2013)<br />
confidential<br />
(accessed October 2025)Hankinson and Lowesmith, HAZIDs for Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation , FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.11 (2013)<br />
https://www.idealhy.eu/uploads/documents/IDEALHY_D3-10%20HAZIDs_Liquefa… />
(Only summary publicly available, accessed October 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
