Editing Steam explosion (section)

===Boiler explosions===
{{Main|Boiler explosion}}
[[File:Boiler explosion of a narrow gauge steam locomotive.jpg|thumb|right|Boiler explosions are a type of steam explosion.]]
When a pressurized container such as the waterside of a steam [[boiler]] ruptures, it is always followed by some degree of steam explosion. A common [[operating temperature]] and pressure for a marine boiler is around {{cvt|950|psi|||}} and {{convert|850|F|||}} at the outlet of the superheater. A steam boiler has an interface of steam and water in the steam drum, which is where the water is finally evaporating due to the heat input, usually oil-fired burners. When a water tube fails due to any of a variety of reasons, it causes the water in the boiler to expand out of the opening into the furnace area that is only a few psi above atmospheric pressure. This will likely extinguish all fires and expands over the large surface area on the sides of the boiler. To decrease the likelihood of a devastating explosion, boilers have gone from the "[[Fire-tube boiler|fire-tube]]" designs, where the heat was added by passing hot gases through tubes in a body of water, to "[[Water-tube boiler|water-tube]]" boilers that have the water inside of the tubes and the furnace area is around the tubes. Old "fire-tube" boilers often failed due to poor build quality or lack of maintenance (such as corrosion of the fire tubes, or [[Metal fatigue|fatigue]] of the boiler shell due to constant expansion and contraction). A failure of fire tubes forces large volumes of high pressure, high temperature steam back down the fire tubes in a fraction of a second and often blows the burners off the front of the boiler, whereas a failure of the pressure vessel surrounding the water would lead to a [[BLEVE|full and entire evacuation of the boiler's contents]] in a large steam explosion. On a marine boiler, this would certainly destroy the ship's propulsion plant and possibly the corresponding end of the ship.

Tanks containing [[Petroleum|crude oil]] and certain commercial oil cuts, such as some [[Diesel fuel|diesel oils]] and [[kerosene]], may be subject to [[boilover]], an extremely hazardous situation in which a water layer under an open-top tank pool fire starts boiling, which results in a significant increase in fire intensity accompanied by violent expulsion of burning fluid to the surrounding areas. In many cases, the underlying water layer is [[Superheated water|superheated]], in which case part of it goes through explosive boiling. When this happens, the abruptness of the expansion further enhances the expulsion of blazing fuel.{{sfnp|Ferrero|2006|p=6}}<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Garrison |first=William W. |year=1984 |title=C.A. La Electricidad de Caracas, December 19, 1982, Fire (Near) Caracas, Venezuela |url=https://www.icheme.org/media/5781/lpb_issue057p026.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722153934/https://www.icheme.org/media/5781/lpb_issue057p026.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2023 |access-date=22 July 2023 |journal=[[Loss Prevention Bulletin]] |publisher=[[Institution of Chemical Engineers|Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)]] |pages=26–30 |issue=57 |issn=0260-9576}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Broeckmann |first1=Bernd |last2=Schecker |first2=Hans-Georg |date=1995 |title=Heat Transfer Mechanisms and Boilover in Burning Oil–Water Systems |journal=[[Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries]] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=137–147 |doi=10.1016/0950-4230(95)00016-T |bibcode=1995JLPPI...8..137B |issn=0950-4230 |eissn=1873-3352}}</ref>