Gas explosions constitute a major hazard for offshore gas and oil producing installations. A gas explosion is the consequence of an accidental release of a flammable gas, the mixing with air and a subsequent ignition. Under appropriate boundary conditions the resulting flame propagation process may develop explosive combustion and damaging blast loadings. In spaces containing a lot of equipment, this is a particular problem and a small quantity of fuel may be sufficient to give rise to the development of high explosion overpressures. If such overpressures are not anticipated in the design they may have fatal consequences for both crew and rig
