In sum, even though almost one hundred years have passed, the topic of fluid dynamics remains enigmatic in industrial engineering. The new paradigm is modern 21st century engineering which has power of new discoveries and superior computing efficacy. The old paradigm of early 20th century engineering technology was devoid of facilities like computer aided design (CAD), industrial control systems, etc. This approach is contextual with relation to both the old and new paradigms of engineering. Source: CCPS (2007) 1.1.2 The technology/engineering involved The CCPS (2007) has utilized a sound technical approach to describe the disaster. (CCPS 2007) Figure 1: Photographs showing the site of disaster before and after the molasses tank failure took place. Consequently, 21 people were killed, above 150 were injured, several buildings and vehicles were smashed, and the municipal system was completely disrupted. The wave had a speed of about 60 km/hr and traveled across two bocks of the Boston city with great momentum. Consequently, a wave or molasses rising above 15 ft or 5m began to surge ahead from the site of the blast. All the rivets sealing the tank walls were spattered in the manner of machine gun firing, and chunks of steel were hurled across the area. It had a diameter of 90 ft or 27 m containing nearly 2.3 million US gallons of molasses. On 15th January 1919 morning, a large storage tank in northern Boston blasted releasing tons of molasses. 1.1 Background 1.1.1 The Boston Molasses Disaster: What happened? The Center for Chemical Process Safety or CCPS has furnished a very concise but informative description of the Boston Molasses Disaster. The approach of writing the paper is completely focused on the engineering aspects and cross disciplinary nature of this disaster. Reputable science and technology publications have been used. Next, the engineering details of this event are discussed. The paper contains a brief narration of the disaster along with the investigations that followed. It is also known as the Great Boston Molasses Flood. Introduction This paper is aimed at researching the Boston Molasses Disaster. Source: Ladokun, Nabhani, and Zarei, (2010) 13 1. Note the projecting structures like valves, nozzles, and entry points for pipes. Source: CCPS (2007) 6 Figure 2: A model of a modern storage tank. Conclusion 15 References 16 List of Figures Figure 1: Photographs showing the site of disaster before and after the molasses tank failure took place. Investigation into the disaster 8 2.1 The investigation 8 2.2 Findings 9 2.3 Recommendations 11 3. Introduction 5 1.1 Background 5 1.1.1 The Boston Molasses Disaster: What happened? 5 1.1.2 The technology/engineering involved 7 2. Table of contents Abstract 2 Table of contents 3 1. Continual research on the Boston Molasses Disaster can help the engineering community to learn from past mistakes and understand the importance of industrial safety in the context of holistic disaster management preparedness. Chemistry of the material to be stored in the tank is highly important. Designing a storage tank is not just a mechanical engineering topic. This signals poor understanding of chemical engineering. A simple and stationary storage tank had behaved in a strange manner. And the technical aspects of the disaster are also extremely vital. This event raised public morale to combat high handed corporates who did not pay much attention to environmental issues and public safety. Negligence and errors in design were finally proved to be the most obvious reasons explaining the tank failure. A lawsuit was filed against the company and a bitter legal battle ensued after the disaster. The disaster took place when a storage tank owned by the United States Industrial Alcohol Company blasted to release a gigantic wave of rushing molasses. The disaster left 21 people dead and many more injured. ? The Boston Molasses Disaster On 15th January 1919, the Boston Molasses Disaster took place in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.
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