Failure of a High-Pressure Stainless Steel Reinforced Natural Gas Fuel Line on a Truck

This matter involved the burst of a very high-pressure natural gas fuel line on a natural gas-fueled truck. The fuel line consisted of a rubber tube that was reinforced with a woven structure consisting of many 0.008” diameter high strength stainless steel wires. After the burst, the natural gas from the line supplied fuel to a fire that eventually destroyed an entire shopping center – and the rubber portions of the fuel line. The failure was caused by chloride assisted corrosion of the wire reinforcements that followed a very intricate path through the individual wires, making many of them actually appear to be hollow.