Identification of ignition sources in high pressure enriched gaseous oxygen system incidents using flow chart road map diagram methodology

Abstract

High pressure enriched oxygen is used in a wide number of areas, including aircraft, medical breathing apparatus, and a number of industrial processes including combustion. Unwanted ignition in such systems can cause significant damage to property and danger to life. It is important to gain as much information, and record relevant data for every oxygen incident, enabling both immediate analysis, and post-event evaluations (especially where circumstances are repeated). The lack of clear concise guidance can result in data loss. This work successfully develops investigation 'road maps' as guidance documents for investigators to use, even under difficult & time pressured conditions. The work demonstrates their usefulness and importance for information collection and the down-selection' or elimination of possible ignition causes through their use with a 'real world' case study. The benefit of this work will be to enable faster and more effective investigation of oxygen incidents, ensuring key details are recorded (benefitting post-accident academic data & meta-study analysis). The roadmaps can also benefit designers of oxygen systems allowing them to test their designs and operating procedures against specific ignition scenarios.