Engineering layout of fuel tanks in a tank farm

The present paper deals with the location of tanks in a tank farm, in chemical and allied industries. Ideally the tanks are so placed and installed that in case of fire, the neighbouring tanks could remain safe. The safe distance of separation among the tanks is calculated in no wind condition, as well as, in the presence of wind. The paper uses the methods available in literature and modifies the point source model to include the effect of wind vector on the flame height during the calculation of safe inter-tank distance. It is found that for wind velocity > 4 m/s, the modified point source model provides appropriate inter-tank distance. However, for no wind and with wind velocity < 4 m/s, the Shokri-Beyler’s method provides safe inter-tank distance.     

Assessment of alpha activity of building materials commonly used in West Bengal, India

This paper, reports for the first time, an extensive study of alpha activity of all widely used building materials (plaster of Paris, stone chips, marble, white cement, mosaic stone, limestone, sand, granite, cement brick, asbestos, red brick, cement tile, ceramic tile and ceramics) in West Bengal, India. The alpha activities have been measured using Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD), a very sensitive detector for alpha particles. The samples were collected from local markets of Kolkata. The measured average alpha activities ranged from 22.7+/-2.5 to 590.6+/-16.8Bqkg(-1). The alpha activity of ceramic tiles was highest and provides additional data to estimate the effect of environmental radiation exposure on human health.