The explosion accident caused by residual pressure is one of the most common kinds of accidents in quick actuating pressure vessels. And it is important to provide some reliable methods, which can give reasonable analysis of the explosion. In this study, experiments of the explosion are preformed by using two quick actuating pressure vessels with residual pressure, and a new mathematical model is presented. The model is based on the combination of the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence fluid model and Newton's second Law for the solid motion. And the model is solved with local remeshing method. By performing the simulation with the same parameters of experiments, the results of the simulation confirm the accuracy of the model. And the results shows the crucial factor of vessel structure, which the maximum ejected speed of the lid highly depends on. Based on that, the optimal design of the structure is presented, which can provide better security. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.