Modeling the initial flame acceleration in an obstructed channel using large eddy simulation

The propagation and acceleration of a flame surface past obstructions in a closed square channel was investigated using large eddy simulation. The dynamic Smagorinsky–Lilly subgrid model and the Boger flame surface density combustion model were used. The geometry is essentially two-dimensional with fence-type obstacles distributed on the top and bottom surfaces, equally spaced along the channel length at the channel height. Flame propagation, however, is three dimensional as ignition occurs at a point at the center of the channel cross-section. The effect of obstacle blockage ratio on the development of the flame structure was investigated by varying the obstacle height. Three-dimensional cases were simulated from the initiation of a combustion kernel through spark ignition to the acceleration of the flame front at speeds up to 80 m/s. The transition from laminar flame propagation to turbulent flame propagation within the “thin reaction zone” regime was observed in the simulations. By analyzing the development of the three dimensional flame surface and unburned gas flow field, the formation of several flame structures observed experimentally are explained. Global quantities such as the total flame area and centerline flame velocity were ascertained and compared to the experimental data. High amplitude oscillations in the centerline flame velocity were found to occur from a combination of the unburned gas flow field and fluctuations in the volumetric burning rate.     

Experimental study on DDT for hydrogen–methane–air mixtures in tube with obstacles

An experimental study of flame propagation, acceleration and transition to detonation in stoichiometric hydrogen–methane–air mixtures in 6 m long tube filled with obstacles located at different configurations was performed. The initial conditions of the hydrogen–methane–air mixtures were 1 atm and 293 K. Four different cases of obstacle blockage ratio (BR) 0.7, 0.6, 0.5 and 0.4 and three cases of obstacle spacing were used. The wave propagation was monitored by piezoelectric pressure transducers PCB. Pressure transducers were located at different positions along the channel to collect data concerning DDT and detonation development. Tested mixtures were ignited by a weak electric spark at one end of the tube. Detonation cell sizes were measured using smoked foil technique and analyzed with Matlab image processing toolbox. As a result of the experiments the deflagration and detonation regimes and velocities of flame propagation in the obstructed tube were determined.     

有障碍物半开口管道内氢气燃烧数值模拟研究

基于有障碍物氢气燃烧实验装置进行数值模拟研究,采用Fluent软件分析了半开口管道内障碍物对氢气/空气燃烧特性的影响。结果表明:障碍物会促进实验管段内氢气火焰加速,随着障碍物阻塞率和数量的增加,火焰加速更快且燃烧压力峰值更大;在相同阻塞率下,障碍物形状对氢气火焰速度和燃烧压力峰值的影响很小;燃烧压力随障碍物间距的增大先增大后减小,障碍物间距为3倍管道内径时产生的燃烧压力峰值最大。     

LES – DFSD modelling of vented hydrogen explosions in a small-scale combustion chamber

Accidental explosions are a plausible danger to the chemical process industries. In the event of a gas explosion, any obstacles placed within the path of the flame generate turbulence, which accelerates the transient flame and raises explosion overpressure, posing a safety hazard. This paper presents numerical studies using an in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for lean premixed hydrogen/air flame propagations with an equivalence ratio of 0.7. A laboratory-scale combustion chamber is used with repeated solid obstacles. The transient compressible large eddy simulation (LES) modelling technique combined with a dynamic flame surface density (DFSD) combustion model is used to carry out the numerical simulations in three-dimensional space. The study presented uses eight different baffle configurations with two solid obstructions, which have area blockage ratios of 0.24 and 0.5. The flame speed, maximum rate of pressure-rise as well as peak overpressure magnitude and timing are presented and discussed. Numerical results are validated against available published experimental data. It is concluded that, increasing the solid obstacle area blockage ratio and the number of consecutive baffles results in a raised maximum rate of pressure rise, higher peak explosion overpressure and faster flame propagation. Future model development would require more experimental data, probably in a more congested configuration.     

Effects of multiple annular obstacles on flame propagation of local corn starch dust in a vertical pipe

With high-speed camera technology, the propagation behavior of explosion flame for the local dust cloud of corn starch in a semi-open vertical pipe under the action of the annular obstacle was studied experimentally, and the blockage rate and the annular obstacle numbers as well as impact of dust cloud concentration on the flame propagation were investigated. The researches showed that both the blockage rate and the annular obstacle numbers have significant effects on the flame speed and propagation process for the dust cloud explosion of corn starch. The increase of the blockage rate of such annular obstacles will cause that the combustion of dust cloud with high concentration is mainly concentrated in the lower part of the pipe. The increase of the annular obstacle numbers will lead to the acceleration of combustion of the dust cloud. With the increase of the blockage rate and the annular obstacle numbers, the maximum flame speed shows a trend of the first increasing and then decreasing, and the phenomenon of accelerated propagation of the flame becomes more and more obvious, however, the distance of continuous acceleration for the flame is gradually decreased and the maximum flame speed is farther from the outlet of the pipe. Under the action of such annular obstacles, the concentration of dust cloud has a significant effect on the flame speed and shape of the dust cloud of the corn starch. The increase of the concentration of the dust cloud will decrease the acceleration effect of such annular obstacles to result in maximum flame speed showing a trend of the first increasing and then decreasing. However, the acceleration distance of the flame is longer, and the maximum flame speed is closer to the outlet of the pipe. The increasing concentration will make the flame speed develop more slowly, the flame color will be darker, and the flame segmentation phenomenon will be more obvious.     

水平管道内障碍物数量对瓦斯爆炸过程的影响研究

为了研究水平管道内障碍物数量对瓦斯爆炸的影响,利用自制的水平管道式气体爆炸试验装置,选用阻塞率为60%的圆环型障碍物,在常温常压下对管道内障碍物数量分别为1片、3片、5片和7片时瓦斯(试验气体为甲烷与空气的混合物,下同)爆炸过程进行试验研究。结果表明:瓦斯的爆炸压力及其上升速率均随障碍物数量的增加呈先增后减的变化规律,而火焰传播速度则随着障碍物数量的增加单调递增,但递增幅度逐渐减小。在密闭置障管道内瓦斯的爆炸压力及其上升速率随测试位置长径比的增大先减小后增大,而火焰传播速度则随测试位置长径比的增大单调递减。     

泄爆夹层内障碍物对泄爆效果影响的数值模拟研究

为研究泄爆夹层内障碍物位置对燃气泄爆效果的影响,以某大型商业综合体暗厨房为研究对象,考虑泄爆夹层中结构梁不同位置的泄爆效果,对暗厨房燃气爆炸的泄爆过程开展数值模拟研究。研究结果表明：在火焰没有到达泄爆窗前的爆炸初始阶段,障碍物对火焰结构和传播速度基本没有影响,当火焰进入泄爆夹层后,障碍物的存在可引发火焰加速现象;当障碍物距离泄爆窗1.7 m时,火焰加速现象较为明显,火焰最大传播速度可达591.5 m/s,此时厨房内压力峰值约2.9 MPa,约为没有结构梁情况下1.42倍;障碍物距离泄爆窗较近时,二者将协同影响火焰传播;厨房内压力峰值随着障碍物与泄爆窗距离的增大遵循增大-突降-增大的规律。研究结果可为商业综合体暗厨房泄爆设计提供一定理论依据。     

Solution adaptive CFD simulation of premixed flame propagation over various solid obstructions

This paper presents the results of a number of calculations carried out in order to simulate combustion past obstacles of different shape and blockage ratio. The obstacle shapes considered are circles, squares, triangles and flat plates. Two-dimensional simulations are carried out with the McNEWT code. The code solves the reacting flow field with a laminar flamelet model on an unstructured mesh. Adaptive mesh refinement is applied so that the flame front is accompanied by mesh refinement throughout the calculation domain. A transition from laminar to turbulent combustion induced by passage past the obstacle is seen in the simulations. Evidence for the transition is found in the change in flame shape, flame speed and pressure. The simulations are compared with experimental data and there is good agreement between experiment and simulation.     

Large eddy simulation of methane–air deflagration in an obstructed chamber using different combustion models

In this paper, simulations of methane–air deflagration inside a semi-confined chamber with three solid obstacles have been carried out with large eddy simulation (LES) technique. Three sub-grid scale (SGS) combustion models, including power-law flame wrinkling model by Charlette et al., turbulent flame speed closure (TFC) model, and eddy dissipation model (EDM), are applied. All numerical results have been compared to literature experimental data. It is found that the power-law flame wrinkling model by Charlette et al. is able to better predict the generated pressure and other flame features, such as flame structure, position, speed and acceleration against measured data. Based on the power-law flame wrinkling model, the flame–vortex interaction during the deflagration progress is also investigated. The results obtained have demonstrated that higher turbulence levels, induced by obstacles, wrinkle the flame and then increase its surface area, the burning rates and the flame speed.     

Scale effects on hydrogen–air fast deflagrations and detonations in small obstructed channels

An experimental study of flame propagation, acceleration and transition to detonation in hydrogen–air mixture in 2-m-long rectangular cross-section channel filled with obstacles located at the bottom wall was performed. The initial conditions of the hydrogen–air mixture were 0.1 MPa and 293 K and stoichiometric composition (29.6% H₂ in air). The channel width was 0.11 m and blockage ratio was 0.5 in all experiments. The effect of channel geometrical scale on flame propagation was studied by using four channel heights H of 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.08 m. In each case, the obstacle height was equal to H/2 and the obstacle spacing was 2H.

The propagation of flame and pressure waves was monitored by four pressure transducers and four ion probes. The pairs of transducers and probes were placed at various locations along the channel in order to get information about the progress of the phenomena along the channel.

As a result of the experiments, the deflagration and detonation regimes and velocities of flame propagation in the obstructed channel were established.     

Influence of built-in obstacles on unconfined vapor cloud explosion

The obstacle structure in the vapor cloud has a significant influence on the gas explosion. Obstacles could not only lead to the acceleration of flame, but also they may occupy some space, thus affecting the amount of combustible gas. In this paper, a new two-step method was proposed to respectively study the effects of the obstacles amount and volume blockage ratio (VBR) on the gas explosion by using Computation Fluid Dynamic software AutoReaGas, and the obstacles in the vapor cloud were set to “Solid” instead of “Subgrid”. Based on the results and analysis, it is found that the peak overpressure and the maximum combustion rate rise with the increase of the number of obstacles for a single VBR, which indicated that the vapor cloud explosion of more obstacles was more dangerous for a single VBR. However, under a single number of obstacles, the peak overpressure and the maximum combustion rate increase firstly and then decrease as VBR increases and reach the highest at the VBR of 0.74, which indicated that the intensity of vapor cloud explosion reach a peak at a certain VBR in the middle instead of the largest. In addition, the existence and structure of obstacles have little effect on the size of explosion fireball when the size and concentration of combustible gas cloud are the same.     

障碍物压力反射特性对瓦斯爆炸传播影响的数值模拟研究*

为了研究不同形状障碍物对瓦斯爆炸传播的影响机理,对直径0.2 m、长6.5 m的密闭直管道内的瓦斯爆炸过程进行数值模拟。研究结果表明:在该实验条件下,对于火焰通过整个管道的时间,方形障碍物时间最长,球形障碍物与无障碍物时间接近,且用时最短;无障碍物时,在反射压力波作用下火焰传播速度存在明显的波动特性;有障碍物时,障碍物的诱导作用要大于反射压力波的作用,火焰传播的这种波动特性得到抑制,提升了火焰前锋向未燃区域传播的能力;压力波的波动频率与气流震荡、压力波反射叠加有关,波幅则主要与正向压力波和反射压力波的叠加效果有关。研究结果为煤矿瓦斯爆炸事故防治及隔抑爆技术应用提供技术支撑。     

5种结构障碍物对火焰传播影响的试验研究

为了研究障碍物结构对预混甲烷管道内火焰传播速度和峰值超压的影响,自行设计一套火焰加速系统。在火焰加速管道上安装光电传感器和压力传感器分别测定火焰传播速度和超压,试验中选取5种结构障碍物,即平板、长方体、三棱柱、四棱柱和圆柱,其阻塞比分别为20%,40%和60%3种。研究结果表明:初始阶段障碍物阻碍火焰传播,当火焰越过障碍物后,障碍物能显著加速火焰传播。随着阻塞比增加,相同结构障碍物的火焰传播速度总体上不断增加,而峰值超压先变大后减小。相同阻塞比下,平板、三棱柱对火焰传播速度和超压影响相对较大;长方体居中;圆柱、四棱柱对增加火焰传播速度和超压作用相对较小。较小阻塞比障碍物管道内超压与无障碍物管道中的超压相比显著增加,但此后,管道中超压随阻塞比变化不明显。     

Efficient simulation of flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition in smooth pipes

Evaluation of accident scenarios including flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in chemical plant piping systems increases the need for an efficient numerical simulation tool capable of dealing with this phenomenon. In this work, a hybrid pressure-density-based solver including deflagrative flame propagation as well as detonation propagation is presented. The initial incompressible acceleration stage is covered by the pressure-based solver until the flame velocity reaches the fast flame regime and transition to the density-based solver is done. The deflagration source term is formulated in terms of a turbulent flame speed closure model incorporating various physical effects crucial for flame acceleration at low turbulence conditions (Katzy and Sattelmayer, 2018). Modelling of the detonation source term is based on a quadratic heat release function (Hasslberger, 2017). The presented numerical approach is validated in terms of DDT locations and pressure data from Schildberg (2015) as well as recently completed flame tip position measurements. For this purpose, H₂/O₂/N₂ mixtures ranging from 25.6 vol-% H₂ to 29.56 vol-% H₂ in two different pipe geometries are considered. The focus of the current work is on predicting the DDT location correctly and good agreement is observed for the investigated cases.     

The acceleration of flames in tube explosions with two obstacles as a function of the obstacle separation distance

The separation distance (or pitch) between two successive obstacles or rows of obstacles is an important parameter in the acceleration of flame propagation and increase in explosion severity. Whilst this is generally recognised, it has received little specific attention by investigators. In this work a vented cylindrical vessel 162 mm in diameter 4.5 m long was used to study the effect of separation distance of two low blockage (30%) obstacles. The set up was demonstrated to produce overpressure through the fast flame speeds generated (i.e. in a similar mechanism to vapour cloud explosions). A worst case separation distance was found to be 1.75 m which produced close to 3 bar overpressure and a flame speed of about 500 m/s. These values were of the order of twice the overpressure and flame speed with a double obstacle separated 2.75 m (83 characteristic obstacle length scales) apart. The profile of effects with separation distance was shown to agree with the cold flow turbulence profile determined in cold flows by other researchers. However, the present results showed that the maximum effect in explosions is experienced further downstream than the position of maximum turbulence determined in the cold flow studies. It is suggested that this may be due to the convection of the turbulence profile by the propagating flame. The present results would suggest that in many previous studies of repeated obstacles the separation distance investigated might not have included the worst case set up, and therefore existing explosion protection guidelines may not be derived from worst case scenarios.     

球形障碍物对瓦斯爆燃火焰影响试验研究

为进一步开发煤矿井下瓦斯爆炸事故的隔抑爆技术装备,利用截面为0.2 m×0.2 m的方形管道、纹影仪和高速摄像机,开展无障碍物时和球形障碍物存在情况下的瓦斯爆燃传播试验.研究发现,无障碍物时,密闭管道内爆燃火焰的结构和传播速度受反射压力波的影响很大,湍流火焰、化学反应作用能力与反射压力波的相互作用是造成火焰传播速度变化...     

The effect of orifice plates with different shapes on explosion propagation of premixed methane–air in a semi-confined pipeline

The effect of internal shape of obstacles on the deflagration of premixed methane–air (concentration of 10%) was experimentally investigated in a semi-confined steel pipeline (with a square cross section size of 80 mm × 80 mm and 4 m long). The obstacles used in this study were circular, square, triangular and gear-shaped (4-teeth, 6-teeth and 8-teeth) orifice plates with a blockage ratio of 75%, and the perimeter of the orifice was regarded as a criterion for determining the sharpness of the orifice plate. The overpressure history, flame intensity histories, flame front propagation speed, maximum flame intensity and peak explosion overpressure were analyzed. The explosion in the pipeline can be divided into two stages: initial explosion and secondary explosion. The secondary explosion is caused by recoiled flame. The perimeter is positively related to the intensity of the recoiled flame and the ability of orifice plate to suppress the explosion propagation. In addition, the increase in the perimeter will cause the acceleration of the flame passing through the orifice plate, while after the perimeter of the orifice reaches a certain value, the effect of the increase in perimeter on explosion excitation becomes no obvious. The overpressure (static pressure) downstream of the orifice plate is the result of the combined effect of explosion intensity and turbulence. The increase in perimeter leads to the increase in turbulence downstream of the orifice plate which in turn causes more explosion pressure to be converted into dynamic pressure.     

障碍物对瓦斯煤尘爆炸火焰传播规律的影响

为了进一步探究瓦斯煤尘耦合爆炸火焰的传播规律,用自行搭建的半封闭垂直管道爆炸试验系统,研究障碍物对瓦斯煤尘耦合爆炸火焰传播规律的影响。研究结果表明:障碍物能显著提高瓦斯煤尘爆炸火焰的传播速度,其加速机理主要是障碍物诱导的湍流区会促进火焰的传播;火焰在传播过程中的加速度不是一直增加,随着火焰速度的增加会出现上下波动;煤尘的加入会使瓦斯爆炸产生的火焰传播速度显著增大及速度的最大值距离点火端较远;通过障碍物时爆炸产生的火焰形状发生较大的改变,出现拉伸和褶皱现象。     

大型相连容器中火焰传播的研究

为了进一步了解相连装置中粉尘爆炸的火焰传播行为和压力发展,为该结构的安全防护设计提供有价值的信息,采用大型实验装置对相连容器中玉米淀粉/空气混合物爆炸时的火焰传播行为进行了实验研究,同时采用已开发的数值模型对实验进行仿真计算。实验表明:粉尘浓度的变化对粉尘爆炸的火焰传播行为有重要影响;在粉尘浓度很低的情况下,火焰仍然能够在管道中加速传播且爆炸发展的最终结果相当猛烈。数值模型采用欧拉-拉格朗日方法模拟两相流现象,通过求解非稳态的湍流两相反应流守恒方程对实验进行二维仿真,计算结果与实验结果符合性较好,表明该模型可以很好地应用于粉尘爆炸火焰传播的研究。     

Experimental investigation of hydrogen–air deflagrations and detonations in semi-confined flat layers

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation on the deflagration and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in an obstructed (blockage ratio BR = 50%), semi-confined flat layer filled with uniform hydrogen–air mixtures. The effect of mixture reactivity depending on flat layer thickness and its width is studied to evaluate the critical conditions for sonic flame propagation and the possibility for detonation onset. The experiments were performed in a transparent, rectangular channel with a length of 2.5 m. The flat layer thickness was varied from 0.06 to 0.24 m and the experiments were performed for different channel widths of 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 m. The experimental results show flame velocity vs. hydrogen concentration for different thicknesses and widths of the semi-confined flat layer. Three different flame propagation regimes were observed: slow subsonic flame (M << 1), sonic deflagration (M ～ 1) and detonation (M >> 1). It is shown that flame acceleration (FA) to sonic speed is independent of the width of the flat layer. The critical expansion ratio for effective flame acceleration to sonic speed was found to be linearly dependent on the reciprocal layer thickness.