We are uniquely qualified to provide testing services that focus on product development, product proof tests, forensic support, and high hazard testing. BakerRisk’s testing staff possesses decades of hands-on experience in analysis, design, and development of solutions to mitigate hazards resulting from catastrophic events.
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What Sets Us Apart
Determining the response of systems to different hazards is vital for the protection of personnel and infrastructure. BakerRisk’s industry-leading experts, technology, and state-of-the-art testing facilities, allow us to properly characterize hazards and systems for your facilities and products.
Our analysis and design expertise allows us to evaluate your product or system application thoroughly prior to and after each test. Unlike test facilities that only offer commodity testing services, BakerRisk test engineers provide guidance through all phases of testing and performance validation programs; we are a full-service engineering consultancy.
Testing and performance validation is integral to both our teams and practice. Expertise is leveraged from our Blast Effects, Protective Structures, Process Safety, Incident Investigation, and Materials groups to conduct test programs that deliver practical and accurate results. All BakerRisk test programs are managed by the same professionals who design, analyze, assess, and investigate systems to protect personnel and infrastructure from real-world catastrophic events. Because all of our testing teams include engineers who have both practical testing and real design experience, we are able to consult with you regarding the real-world application of your product and system performance.
BakerRisk testing personnel include licensed and practicing engineers, research scientists, and industry-leading subject matter experts in the fields of structural response, combustion, energetic materials, metallurgical analysis, and beyond. We are uniquely qualified to conduct research focusing on product development, proof of performance testing, forensics, or legal support testing that cannot be accomplished at typical test facilities.
Your evaluation needs are unique. BakerRisk excels at creating custom-tailored testing and research programs to help you solve problems expediently and accurately. Our testing staff works with you to define your needs and design a test program to achieve your goals. Whether you need a small proof test or a multidisciplinary research study, BakerRisk will guide you from start to finish.
Testing capabilities
BakerRisk provides a wide range of testing and validation services. Our testing engineers conduct everything from small to full-scale structural response testing, to lab scale metallurgical evaluations, to fire and flammable dispersion studies. From proof testing research, our testing services help you meet your organization’s goals and standards.
Two Texas-based large-scale test facilities for characterizing real hazards such as:
Testing Videos
Shock Tube Tests
BakerRisk’s indoor shock tube is used to test blast resistant windows, doors, wall panels, passive fire protection systems, blast dampers, and a variety of other components and systems. All testing activities are supported by licensed and practicing structural engineers experienced in the evaluation and design of structures in response to blast loads; and by the designers of the shock tube itself.
Shock tube testing is supplemented by uniform static testing capabilities and other unique structural test configurations, including full-scale building testing. BakerRisk has designed the shock tube to test structural components up to 16’ x 10’. Full scale building blast response tests are conducted with HE Arena Testing or DLG Testing at the Box Canyon Test Facility.
Shock tube test data
Test programs can include a myriad of instrumentation to gather quantitative information, such as applied loading and structural response data. Structural response data includes acceleration, deflection, reaction forces, strain, and high-speed video documentation.
The various data acquired during test programs is used to supplement test reports, to develop analytical models, and to validate observed component response. The comprehensive data acquisition at our test facility ensures that our customers can plan to account for installation variances between how a product is tested and how it is installed by understanding how each test parameter influences component response.
Standards
BakerRisk several key standards when blast testing doors and windows. We have also developed test procedures for evaluation of components and systems that are not covered by existing standards, such as fire-resistant materials and blast dampers.
Shock Tube Testing
Discover the impact of a shock tube test with video records of a demo window test. Imagine what you could learn from the same test setup.
High Explosive Tests
BakerRisk’s high explosives (HE) testing leverages our 2,300-acre Box Canyon test facility, along with decades of hands-on engineering consulting expertise in dynamic structural response, to provide comprehensive and cost-effective test solutions. Our engineers will guide your test program to successful completion while offering insights and instrumentation consulting to help you achieve useful data from your experiments.
Test Range and Instruments
The HE test range is used to test blast-resistant windows, doors, wall panels, passive fire protection systems, and a variety of other components and systems, some of which are highly complex. HE charges can also be used to facilitate research into directly initiated vapor cloud detonations. BakerRisk has designated the HE range limit to be in excess of 1,000 lb TNT equivalent. HE testing activities can be supported by structural engineers experienced in the evaluation and design of structural components in response to blast loads.
HE testing is complemented by uniform static testing capabilities, shock tube blast testing, and other unique structural testing capabilities. Full-scale building tests are also possible with the BakerRisk DLG test rig at the Box Canyon facility.
Tests can include a myriad of instrumentation to measure applied loading and structural response data, such as accelerations, deflections, reaction forces, strains, and global response with high-speed video documentation.
Performance Compliance
BakerRisk has developed test procedures for the evaluation of components and systems that are not covered by existing standards, such as fire-resistant materials and blast dampers. In addition to being instrumental in the development of new test standards, we also provide tests in accordance with many established standards.
HE Testing
Vapor Cloud Explosion Tests
Our 2,300-acre Box Canyon Test Facility has the capability to conduct large-scale vapor cloud explosion (VCE) tests that range from slow-speed deflagrations to deflagration-to-detonation transitions (DDTs). In addition to conducting client-specific tests, BakerRisk also conducts VCE test programs in support of our Explosion Research Cooperative (ERC), internal research projects, and industry regulatory organizations. We use data collected from these test programs to improve VCE consequence modeling, to help clients better understand their specific hazards, and to investigate potential enhancements to VCE mitigation techniques.
Results from our extensive industry-leading research continue to generate improvements in the prediction methodologies and mitigation techniques used throughout the industry. Publications and presentations from this research are often shared at conferences and regulatory organizations to the benefit of our clients and the safety of personnel worldwide.
Client Accommodations
From 216 ft³ (6 m³) up to 5,000 ft³ (145 m³)
Typical resolutions of 1024×768 @ 3,000 fps
Up to 100,000 Hz per channel
Vapor cloud testing
View recorded footage of a lean hydrogen DDT test and an ethylene VCE test.
Deflagration Load Generator Tests
The Deflagration Load Generator (DLG) produces blast loads representative of large vapor cloud explosions (VCEs) that can occur at refining and chemical processing facilities.
Data and lessons learned from component-level testing with the BakerRisk Shock Tube are often combined with HE Arena and DLG full-scale testing to achieve holistic understanding of building or system response, with full component interaction. This data is used to validate our advanced modeling techniques to accurately predict system behavior. BakerRisk uses these validated techniques to sharpen the pencil and provide cost-effective solutions to protect your personnel and infrastructure.
Deflagration Testing
1.8 psig overpressure, 40 psi-ms impulse, 40 ms duration
Dispersion and Jet Fire Tests
Gas dispersion and jet/pool fire testing is performed at both the Wilfred E. Baker Test Facility (WEBTF) and Box Canyon test facilities, depending on the desired test configuration and magnitude. Tests conducted for dispersions and jet/pool fires provide a better understanding of the hazards associated with these events. We have done many different hydrocarbon releases (both liquid and gas), as well as hydrogen and nitrogen releases. Furthermore, we will soon be performing CO2 dispersion tests at these facilities.
The primary gas dispersion and fire test rig is located at the WEBTF and was initially developed to support vapor dispersion and jet fire tests. As clients have discovered the importance of understanding “real” hazard scenario situations, the site’s capabilities have expanded to handle a range of tests from detector reliability to PHA scenario verification. To handle all possible client needs, we have the capability to perform pressurized gas releases (supply pressure up to 3,000psig) at a release pressure of 500psi, as well as foam suppression testing.
Our Facility
BakerRisk’s 80’×80′ fire and dispersion test pad includes the hardware to conduct vapor and liquid discharges. The data acquisition system (DAQ) and historian used with this test location can accommodate 48 I/O channels for instrumentation, with supplementary DAQ systems available for even larger-scale experiments. Our instrumentation capabilities allow us to collect data to verify and refine computer models used for facility siting studies and quantitative risk analyses. In addition to test apparatus, the site has a range of firewater mitigation systems to test the effectiveness of various suppression, rainout, and extinguishing systems to mitigate different hazard events.
Jet Fire Testing
BakerRisk’s gas dispersion and fire test rig is appropriate for many test setups and allows for rigorous data collection. See what tests look like at this facility below.
High-Pressure Testing
At our state-of-the-art Wilfred E. Baker test facility, we perform R&D on various types of pressure testing conditions to help you better understand the hazards present in your operations, improve upon current codes and standards, and develop new and improved hazard prediction methodologies.
Infrastructure and High-Pressure Instruments
BakerRisk’s WEBTF enables you to gather a wealth of data from barricade tests, projectile tests, and other tests in which fragments or projectiles are impacting objects, initiated by a high-pressure system failure. Our testing infrastructure includes both standardized and custom state-of-the-art pressure-testing apparatus designed to facilitate complex experiments with exceptional results.
With our advanced testing infrastructure, we conduct experimental tests and research to improve upon current codes and standards as well as enhance high-pressure hazard prediction methodologies. We launch fittings, flanges, plugs, and endcaps to simulate accidents that involve projectile hazards. Other hazards, such as blast loads from pressure releases and pipe-whipping from supply line releases, have also been investigated through experimental testing. Projectiles have also been launched at supersonic speeds to simulate weapons effects and other hazards from high explosives.
High-pressure testing operations often utilize barricades for protection against pressure-testing projectile hazards. BakerRisk can perform barricade testing using traditional construction materials such as reinforced concrete and structural steel, as well as novel concepts such as ballistic blankets. These tests aid in improving understanding of structural design for projectile impacts and may also serve as proof tests for vendor-supplied products.
Third-party performance and proof tests are typically conducted at elevated temperatures and pressures to satisfy various requirements (e.g., API and others). This is especially useful when your demands for pressure testing exceed the capacity of your existing facilities or when you are faced with unique project challenges. BakerRisk can accommodate specialized testing requirements using our uniquely designed hardened or submerged pressure test enclosures.
Our Specialists
Related Resources
Test programs, such as those discussed above, have provided significant validation of the current methodologies used to analyze hydrogen hazards. Despite the enormous amount of work done by BakerRisk, the ERC, and others to understand the hazards associated with hydrogen, there is still more work to be done.
Discover how laboratory examination and analytical techniques can answer important questions during forensic investigations, failure analysis, and root cause analysis efforts with BakerRisk's latest Webinar.
Discover the importance of risk management in the aerospace industry and how to practice it with BakerRisk’s expert testing and enclosure design services.
Experience blast testing, jet fire testing, & all other process safety testing you may need with trained experts at the Wilfred E. Baker Test Facility.
BakerRisk acquired San Antonio based Bryant-Lee Associates, expanding BakerRisk’s materials science capabilities
This year, our process safety testing team designed and constructed a new test rig at our Wilfred E. Baker Test Facility (WEBTF)! This appropriately named “Cylinder Skid Dispersion Rig” allows the team to disperse a variety of gases without previously required modifications to our existing rigs.
BakerRisk has performed vented deflagration testing of congested enclosures over a range of configurations, congestion levels and fuels. This paper provides a comparison of the measured flame jetting distances to predictions made using standard methods commonly used to calculate the associated hazard zone. These methods include the National Fire Protection Association Standard on Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting (NFPA 68), the British Standard’s Gas Explosion Venting Protective Systems (EN 14994) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis.
Congratulations to our Testing Operations General Manager, Darren Malik, who has won the AIChE Bill Doyle Award for Best Paper.
Contact: +1 (210) 824-5960
