BOSTON MOLASSES FLOOD

PRESENTED BY
BE MECH A 22
RISHI GUPTA
 CONTENT’S OF PPT
• INTRODUCTION
• FACTORS
• REASON FOR DISASTER
• MATERIALS
• EFFECTS OF THE DISASTER
• CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION

• The Boston Molasses Disaster is one of the most

famous cases of material failure.
• On January 15, a steel tank were used for storing molasses.
• The tank, which was located near Boston Harbor.
• The tank was 90 feet in diameter and 50 feet tall. The tank
contained around 2,300,000 gallons of molasses at the time
of accident.
The tank was constructed of steel plates with thickness
varying from ½ of an inch to 5/8 of an inch
The plate were connected with rivets measuring with 1
inch in diameter with flat top heads on the inside and
conical head on the outside.
As we can see in this photographs that illustrate the
collapse of the tank and the magnitude of the clean up
effort.
The molasses weights
11.75 pounds/gallon or
90 pounds per cubic
foot therefore, the
stresses on the steel
plates averaged 31,200
pounds per square
inch, a value which
approached the
ultimate strength of
the steel.
 factors
• Several factors might have contributed to the disaster.
• The first factor is that the tank may have leaked from the very first day that
it was filled in 1915.
• The tank was also constructed poorly and tested insufficiently, and carbon
dioxide production might have raised the internal pressure due to
fermentation in the tank.
• During the flood molasses the temperature rose from 2 F to 41 F (i.e -17
degree to 5.0 degree centigrade).
• The tank capacity was only 10,000 and the tank was filled with 18,000
pounds about 1.8 times larger than its capacity.
 What was the reason for this molasses
flood
• The tank contained 2,300,000 gallons of molasses at the time of
accident.
• Vertical joints failed first by the shearing off of the rivets causing
other plates to be torn apart between rivets.
• Each rivets is supported a load of 18,000 pounds per square inch even
though they were designed to support 10,000 per square inch.
Consequently, the rivets were loaded 1.8 times than the actual load.
• This was the main reason for damaging the tank.
Few data’s of material
Effects of this molasses flood
• By this molasses flood around 21 people were died.
• More than 40 people were injured, and near by
number of houses and businesses were destroyed.
 Conclusion
• My conclusion from this evidence is that this tank was
wholly insufficient in point of structural strength to
handle its load,

• insufficient to meet either legal or engineering

requirement. I am satisfied that the adequate and
predominating cause of this accident was a bursting
from internal pressure exceeding its structural strength.
THANKYOU