[QUOTE=+A465B;117902]A good mechanical engineer can calculate the forces needed to cause failure of specific parts of the gen set, but you are going to need a lot of data from the engine and gen set makers and a lot of expert witness time to reach a supportable conclusion. Further, what happened first ----- [I]Ignition of the gas cloud or an engine failure that caused ignition of the gas cloud ?[/I]
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As far as what happened first, like so much about that casualty the answer is “we’ll never know.” But it is possible to enumerate plausible scenarios. In this case, one would be that the engine ran away at a rate too fast for the the IACS to starve it of air. At some speed the generators were over voltage or frequency sufficient to damage the more fragile gear such as computer monitors. At a higher speed the generator frequency control cut power to the rig. Then the either engine blew up or its overheated exhaust manifold ignited the gas in the engine room.
Another scenario that has been put forth is that when the No. 3 engine was fed by an uncontrolled fuel source it took all load, causing the No. 6 engine to trip off to prevent reverse power. The power management system would then try to restart another of the six engines to maintain station keeping power (this was a DP rig), and the start sequence ignited the gas.
Cheers,
Earl