Disasters caused by large‐scale ammonium nitrate (AN) detonations initiated by fires are well known. The Beirut explosion is again a very sad event with disastrous consequences, but it is not a surprise in the sense of a new phenomenon. It is tragic that calamities with AN occur despite ample guidelines for prevention. Knowledge of the decomposition of AN over the years has greatly progressed, as well how to initiate a detonation with a strong shock wave from a high explosive charge. However, to reproduce the initiation of a detonation by a fire under controlled laboratory conditions never succeeded. The details of the transition of decomposing AN to a detonation remained an open question. Is it a deflagration to detonation mechanism, or is it a shock to detonation one? Knowledge of this may further help process safety measures for the product. The paper will bring research contributions from over a century together, it will develop a scenario how this disaster could happen in Beirut, how much of the AN contributed to the blast, and how further research effort could be beneficial. In addition, the paper estimates the TNT mass equivalent of the AN detonation in Beirut employing three different methods.

中文翻译：

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贝鲁特硝酸铵爆炸：我们真的没有学到什么吗？

由火灾引发的大规模硝酸铵 (AN) 爆炸引起的灾难是众所周知的。贝鲁特爆炸再次是一个非常悲惨的事件，带来了灾难性的后果，但从新现象的意义上说，这并不令人意外。尽管有充分的预防指导方针，但发生 AN 的灾难是可悲的。多年来，关于 AN 分解的知识以及如何用高爆炸装药产生的强冲击波引发爆炸的知识取得了很大进展。然而，在受控实验室条件下重现由火引爆的过程从未成功。将 AN 分解为爆炸的细节仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。是对引爆机制的爆燃，还是对引爆机制的冲击？了解这一点可能会进一步帮助产品的过程安全措施。该论文将汇集一个多世纪以来的研究贡献，将制定一个情景，设想这场灾难如何在贝鲁特发生，AN 对爆炸的贡献有多大，以及进一步的研究工作如何有益。此外，该论文还使用三种不同的方法估算了贝鲁特 AN 爆炸的 TNT 质量当量。