Aerosol Spray Paint Can Explosion

Marineengineer

A friend of mine had an aerosol can in his house earlier today and accidentally dropped it. The can burst and the contents began to leak out of the can.

He placed the can outside until the contents has emptied completely (Or as he thought). He then placed the can inside a plastic bag and sealed it before putting it in his bin.

Awhile later the can/bag exploded with no sign of an ignition source.

Any idea how this explosion would of occurred?

bduffy

Marineengineer wrote: »

A friend of mine had an aerosol can in his house earlier today and accidentally dropped it. The can burst and the contents began to leak out of the can.

He placed the can outside until the contents has emptied completely (Or as he thought). He then placed the can inside a plastic bag and sealed it before putting it in his bin.

Awhile later the can/bag exploded with no sign of an ignition source.

Any idea how this explosion would of occurred?

Were there flames or was it residual gas filling the bag and bursting it? You mention the can/bag exploding but it's not clear if it was both.
Assume there were no injuries?

Marineengineer

bduffy wrote: »

Were there flames or was it residual gas filling the bag and bursting it? You mention the can/bag exploding but it's not clear if it was both.
Assume there were no injuries?

No there was no flames, this is the strange thing. Residual gas may have filled the bag but would this cause an explosion?

Yes the can inside the bag exploded.

No there was no injuries thankfully but it could of been a lot more severe.

gctest50

some sort of version of triboluminescense maybe ?

( the tiny light you see when you unroll sellotape or break sugar up, get it from bubbles caving in sometimes, it generates tiny bit of xrays too afaik - dunno if it does anything else weird )

Marineengineer

I don't think so because there was no activity where the incident occurred.

Would it be possible that the paint in the van reacted with the plastic bag?