The heat flux of the jet flame can cause rapid mechanical failure thereby compromising structural integrity and leading to incident escalation.
The Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 demonstrated how the accidental release of hydrocarbon can lead to the catastrophic failure of an installation with the rupture of major pipeline risers.
Even without direct impingement, the high thermal radiation emitted by jet flames also affected plant and would have been fatal to personnel.
Some characteristics of specific jet fires are:[3] Process plant is generally protected by a pressure relief system.
[1] Older plants may have been sized on an earlier version of the American Petroleum Institute's Pressure-Relieving and Depressuring Systems standard,[2] which did not include consideration of jet fires.