Overpressure
Definition
Pressure above ambient atmospheric pressure produced by an explosion. The peak overpressure and its duration (impulse) together determine structural damage and injury severity.
Related terms
- API 579
- The American Petroleum Institute's Fitness-For-Service standard, which provides assessment methods for determining whether a damaged or corroded pressure vessel or piping component...
- BLEVE
- Boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion. Catastrophic failure of a vessel containing a superheated liquid, producing an expanding pressure wave and, if the...
- Corrosion under insulation (CUI)
- External corrosion of a pipe or vessel surface that occurs beneath thermal insulation, hidden from visual inspection, driven by moisture infiltrating the...
- Deflagration
- A subsonic combustion front propagating through an explosive by thermal conduction. Characteristic of low explosives such as black powder and smokeless powder;...
- Detonation
- A supersonic shock wave coupled to a chemical reaction front, propagating through a high explosive at velocities between approximately 4,500 and 9,100...
Explained in
- Explosion and Pressure-Vessel FailurePressure above ambient atmospheric pressure produced by an explosion. The peak overpressure and its duration (impulse) together determine structural damage and...