Explosion behavior of n-alkane/nitrous oxide mixtures

The explosion properties of alkane/nitrous oxide mixtures were investigated and were compared with those of the corresponding alkane/oxygen and alkane/air mixtures. The explosion properties were characterized by three parameters: the explosion limit, explosion pressure, and deflagration index. For the same alkane, the order of the lower explosion limits (LELs) of the mixtures was found to be alkane/oxygen ≈ alkane/air > alkane/nitrous oxide. In addition, the mixtures containing nitrous oxide tended to exhibit higher explosion pressures than the corresponding mixtures containing oxygen under fuel-lean conditions. The Burgess–Wheeler law was also observed to hold for the mixtures containing nitrous oxide.     

What is an explosion? A case history of an investigation for the insurance industry

After a large property loss, the insured and insurers of a hydroelectric power plant in North America became embroiled in subrogation to determine if the event could be characterized as an explosion. The subject insurance policy provided coverage for explosions, but excluded mechanical breakdowns. Analysis by Exponent Failure Analysis Associates indicated that a consistent, cross-disciplinary definition for explosions can be extracted from published scientific literature, and that this incident was not an explosion because certain key requirements were missing during the accident. However, this investigation has highlighted the necessity for insurance companies and their insureds to better understand this term and thereby minimize future coverage disputes. This paper presents an analysis of this incident and describes the necessary characteristics of an explosion.     

Explosion parameters of wood chip-derived syngas in air

The wood gasification process poses serious concerns about the risk of explosion. The design of prevention and mitigation measures requires the knowledge of safety parameters, such as the maximum explosion pressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise and the gas deflagration index, K_G, at standard ambient temperature (25 °C) and pressure (1 bar) conditions. However, the analysis at specific process conditions is strongly recommended, as the explosion behavior of gas mixtures may be completely different.In the work presented in this paper, the explosion behavior of mixtures with composition representative of wood chip-derived syngas (CO/H₂/CH₄/CO₂/N₂ mixtures with and without H₂O) was experimentally studied in a closed combustion chamber. Experiments were run at two temperatures, 300 °C and 10 °C, and at atmospheric pressure. Test conditions were requested by the safety engineering designer of an existing industrial-scale wood gasification plant. In order to identify the specific fuel–air ratios to be analyzed, thus reducing the number of experimental tests, a preliminary thermo-kinetic study was performed.Results have shown that the mixtures investigated can be classified as low-reactivity mixtures, the higher value of K_G found (∼36 bar m/s) being much lower than the K_G value of methane (55 bar m/s @ 25 °C).     

Numerical analysis of hydrogen deflagration mitigation by venting through a duct

This paper presents a model and simulation results for the mitigation of a hydrogen–air deflagration by venting through a duct. A large eddy simulation (LES) model, applied previously to study both closed-vessel, and open atmosphere hydrogen–air deflagrations, was developed further to model a hydrogen–air explosion vented through a duct. Sub-grid scale (SGS) flame wrinkling factors were introduced to model major phenomena which contribute to the increase of flame surface area in vented deflagrations. Simulations were conducted to validate the model against 20% hydrogen–air mixture deflagrations (vent diameters 25 and 45 cm) and 10% hydrogen–air mixture deflagration (vent diameter 25 cm). There was reasonable correlation between the simulations and the experimental data. The comparative importance of different physical phenomena contributing to the flame wrinkling is discussed.     

Explosibility of polyamide and polyester fibers

The current research is aimed at investigating the explosion behavior of hazardous materials in relation to aspects of particulate size. The materials of study are flocculent (fibrous) polyamide 6.6 (nylon) and polyester (polyethylene terephthalate). These materials may be termed nontraditional dusts due to their cylindrical shape which necessitates consideration of both particle diameter and length. The experimental work undertaken is divided into two main parts. The first deals with the determination of deflagration parameters for polyamide 6.6 (dtex 3.3) for different lengths: 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.75 mm, 0.9 mm and 1 mm; the second involves a study of the deflagration behavior of polyester and polyamide 6.6 samples, each having a length of 0.5 mm and two different values of dtex, namely 1.7 and 3.3. (Dtex or decitex is a unit of measure for the linear density of fibers. It is equivalent to the mass in grams per 10,000 m of a single filament, and can be converted to a particle diameter.) The explosibility parameters investigated for both flocculent materials include maximum explosion pressure (P_max), size-normalized maximum rate of pressure rise (K_St), minimum explosible concentration (MEC), minimum ignition energy (MIE) and minimum ignition temperature (MIT). ASTM protocols were followed using standard dust explosibility test equipment (Siwek 20-L explosion chamber, MIKE 3 apparatus and BAM oven). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were undertaken as indicated by the following examples. Qualitative observation of the post-explosion residue for polyamide 6.6 indicated a complex interwoven structure, whereas the polyester residue showed a shiny, melt-type appearance. Quantitatively, the highest values of P_max and K_St were obtained at the shortest length and finest dtex for a given material. For a given length, polyester displayed a greater difference in P_max and K_St at different values of dtex than polyamide 6.6. Long ignition delay times were observed in the BAM oven (MIT measurements) for polyester, and video framing of explosions in the MIKE 3 apparatus (MIE measurements) enabled observation of secondary ignitions caused by flame propagation after the initial ignition occurring at the spark electrodes.     

Deflagration suppression using expanded metal mesh and polymer foams

Expanded metal mesh and polymer foams of appropriate pore or cell size and sufficient surface area per unit volume can suppress deflagrations of gas/vapor–air mixtures. This paper reviews the requirements that have been established for use of these materials in military aircraft fuel tanks. Extensions and generalizations of these requirements for other applications have been developed and incorporated into the 2008 edition of the NFPA 69 Standard for Explosion Prevention. The new NFPA 69 requirements for testing, evaluating, and installing these materials are summarized here along with an explanation of the basis and rationale for these requirements.     

New dust explosion venting design requirements for turbulent operating conditions

The 2007 edition of the National Fire Protection Association Standard 68 for Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting has a new provision to account for the turbulence level in combustible dust or powder processing equipment. This paper explains the development of this new provision for increased deflagration vent area requirements in highly turbulent combustible dust/powder processing equipment. The development includes a review of initial turbulence level effects on vented explosion pressures, and a review of turbulence levels measured in ASTM E1226 and ISO 6184/1 explosion test procedures to determine K_st. A review of operating conditions in some representative spray dryer plant equipment suggests that most equipment of this type probably do not have high enough air flows to require increased explosion vent areas due to turbulence, but some types of equipment with high tangential entrance air flows may well need larger vent areas.     

重气扩散的数值模拟

易燃易爆有毒物质泄漏事故常形成比空气重的气云,国外已开发了大量不同复杂程度的重气扩散模型,其中数值模拟已成为快速发展的领域.本文综述了重气扩散的湍流模型;还描述了数值模拟的计算方法及其准确性;最后分析了目前存在的问题,提出了今后的发展方向.     

Methods for more accurate determination of explosion severity parameters

Accurate determination of explosion severity parameters (p_max, (dp/dt)_max, and K_St) is essential for dust explosion assessment, identification of mitigation strategy, and design of mitigation measure of proper capacity. The explosion severity parameters are determined according to standard methodology however variety of dust handled and operation circumstances may create practical challenge on the optimal test method and subsequent data interpretation. Two methods are presented: a statistical method, which considers all test results in determination of explosion severity parameters and a method that corrects the results for differences of turbulence intensity. The statistical method also calculates experimental error (uncertainty) that characterises the experimental spread, allows comparison to other dust samples and may define quality determination threshold. The correction method allows to reduce discrepancies between results from 1 m³ vessel and 20-l sphere caused by difference in the turbulence intensity level. Additionally new experimental test method for difficult to inject samples together with its analysis is described. Such method is a versatile tool for explosion interpretation in test cases where different dispersion nozzle is used (various turbulence level in the test chamber) because of either specific test requirements or being “difficult dust sample”.     

Study of the severity of hybrid mixture explosions and comparison to pure dust-air and vapour-air explosions

The explosion behaviour of heterogeneous/homogeneous fuel-air (hybrid) mixtures is here analysed and compared to the explosion features of heterogeneous fuel-air and homogeneous fuel-air mixtures separately.Experiments are performed to measure the pressure history, deflagration index and flammability limits of nicotinic acid/acetone-air mixtures in a standard 20 L Siwek bomb adapted to vapour-air mixtures. Literature data are also used for comparison.The explosion tests performed on gas-air mixtures in the same conditions as explosion tests of dust-air mixtures, show that the increase in explosion severity of dust/gas-air mixtures has to be addressed to the role of initial level of turbulence prior to ignition.At a fixed value of the equivalence ratio, by substituting the dust to the flammable gas in a dust/gas-air mixture the explosion severity decreases. Furthermore, the most severe conditions of dust-gas/air mixtures is found during explosion of gas-air mixture at stoichiometric concentration.     

Modelling of the effect of size on flocculent dust explosions

The effect of size on the severity of explosions involving flocculent materials has been simulated by means of a model previously developed for spherical particles and here extended to the cylindrical geometry of flock. The model consists of the identification of the regime (internal and external heating, pyrolysis/devolatilization reaction, and volatiles combustion) controlling the explosion by the evaluation of dimensionless numbers (Bi, Da, Th and Pc) and then of the estimation of the deflagration index as a function of flocculent size. The model has been validated by means of explosion data of polyamide 6.6 (nylon) at varying diameter and length. The comparison between model and experimental data show a fairly good agreement.     

Assessment of four turbulence models in simulation of large-scale pool fires in the presence of wind using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Pool fires are the most common of all process industry accidents. Pool fires often trigger explosions which may result in more fires, causing huge losses of life and property. Since both the risk and the frequency of occurrence of pool fires are high, it is necessary to model the risks associated with pool fires so as to correctly predict the behavior of such fires.Among the parameters which determine the overall structure of a pool fire, the most important is turbulence. It determines the extent of interaction of various parameters, including combustion, wind velocity, and entrainment of the ambient air. Of the various approaches capable of modeling the turbulence associated with pool fires, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has emerged as the most preferred due to its ability to enable closer approximation of the underlying physical phenomena.A review of the state of the art reveals that although various turbulence models exist for the simulation of pool fire no single study has compared the performance of various turbulence models in modeling pool fires. To cover this knowledge-gap an attempt has been made to employ CFD in the assessment of pool fires and find the turbulence model which is able to simulate pool fires most faithfully. The performance of the standard k–? model, renormalization group (RNG) k–? model, realizable k–? model and standard k–ω model were studied for simulating the experiments conducted earlier by Chatris et al. (2001) and Casal (2013). The results reveal that the standard k–? model enabled the closest CFD simulation of the experimental results.     

Computer simulation of shock waves transmission in obstructed terrains

Generation and transmission of blast waves in real terrains is of major importance for risk analysis procedures involving accidental explosion scenarios. The problem arises from the impact of overpressure wave on people and structures that may be lethal or catastrophic under certain conditions. In this paper, a CFD simulation of shock wave propagation in obstructed terrain is attempted. Overpressure histories as well as a series of critical parameters, namely the positive and negative peak overpressure, the arrival time, and the positive and negative phase duration at specific points within the domain were obtained during the simulation. Their comparison with experimental measurements from field-scale high explosive blast tests performed by HSE showed a reasonably good agreement indicating that CFD computer programs provide reliable tools for estimating explosive shocks in complex terrains.