Learning from Ignorance: A Brief History of Pressure Vessel Integrity and Failures

Developments in pressure vessels during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were accompanied by all-too-frequent catastrophic pressure vessel explosions. Disastrous accidents such as the SS Sultana (1865) and the Grover Shoe Factory explosion (1904) led to the development of basic standards for manufacturing and operation of pressure vessels. Further improvements in metallurgy, welding technology and non-destructive testing helped, but a real understanding of the science and mechanics of pressure vessel failure did not finally arrive until the latter part of the twentieth century. The failure of the Cockenzie steam drum in 1966 during hydraulic testing is described. A description is given, from personal experience, of testing the overpressure safety valves in a nuclear power station. Even in the twenty-first century, the catastrophic failure of a boiler pressure vessel in the SS Norway in Miami harbor in 2003, which killed eight crew, was a reminder that pressure vessels remain hazardous unless carefully designed, operated and inspected.