Effect of initial pressure on explosion characteristics of 2, 3, 3, 3–tetrafluoropropene

With the popularity of refrigerants in the process industries, the potential safety problems caused by the use of refrigerants have attracted worldwide attention as people have realized their inherent explosion characteristics of refrigerants. This paper studied the explosion characteristics of refrigerant 2, 3, 3, 3–tetrafluoropropene (R1234yf) at different concentrations and initial pressures based on a 20 L experimental apparatus. The experimental results illustrated the peak overpressure of R1234yf increased with the rise of initial pressure. At a constant ambient temperature of 25 °C, the maximum rate of pressure rise and deflagration index showed an N-shaped trend with the increase of the refrigerant concentration from 6.8% to 10%. The maximum rate of pressure rise and deflagration index increased first and then decreased with the increase of the refrigerant concentration at atmospheric pressure, while they presented an M-shaped trend at pressurization condition. The peak overpressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise, and deflagration index reached 0.742 MPa, 4.04 MPa s⁻¹, and 1.1 MPa.m.s⁻¹ with a refrigerant concentration of 7.6%, respectively, which were less than those of refrigerant propane and difluoromethane (R32) at the optimal concentration. Furthermore, R1234yf exhibited better safety performance compared with refrigerant R32 in the same flammability classification.     

Measuring the violence of dust explosions with the “20 l sphere” and with the standard “ISO 1 m vessel”: Systematic comparison and analysis of the discrepancies

On the basis of a systematic testwork with a number of different dusts, the explosion indices as determined within the 20 l sphere and with the ISO-VDI 1 m³ vessel have been compared. The repeatability has been assessed and since some systematic deviations appear a refined physical analysis of the explosion processes is developed. It appears in particular that the cube root law supposed to link both vessels is not verified. A striking illustration of this appears when a dust with a significant explosion severity inside the 20 l sphere is not even explosible in the larger vessel. It is strongly suggested that the ignition energy is forcing very significantly the explosion in the smaller vessel inducing several tens of Celsius degrees of preheating. It is shown also that the inner level of turbulence is decreasing very fast in the 20 l sphere during the flame development so that difficult-to-ignite mixtures would tend to burn at a lower combustion rate. It is further demonstrated that the major bias between the chambers can be explained and quantified with these elements. A correlation with the standard 1 m³ vessel and a grid of interpretation of the data is proposed.     

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.     

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).     

Effect of initial temperature on explosion characteristics of 2, 3, 3, 3–Tetrafluoropropene

The flammability of refrigerants is a major cause of refrigerant explosion incidents. Studying the explosion characteristics of refrigerants at different initial temperatures can provide significant benefits for solving the safety problems of refrigerants under actual working conditions. This paper studied the effects of the initial temperature and refrigerant concentration on the explosion characteristics of refrigerant 2, 3, 3, 3-tetrafluoropropene (R1234yf) at 0.1 MPa. The curves of explosion characteristics with different initial temperature revealed the same variation trend ranged from 25 °C to 115 °C. Specifically, as the refrigerant concentration was raised, the peak overpressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise, and laminar burning velocity increased initially and decreased afterwards, along with maximum values at the refrigerant concentration of 7.6%. When the refrigerant concentration was 7.6%, the peak overpressure declined exponentially with the initial temperature rise, while the maximum rate of pressure rise increased linearly. The laminar burning velocity calculated from the spherical expansion method indicated that the flame propagation was gradually accelerated by the increase of initial temperature, which coincided with the change of the maximum rate of pressure rise. Meanwhile, experiments and CHEMKIN simulation results demonstrated the effects of elevated temperature from 20 °C to 50 °C on the explosion limits of R1234yf. The lower explosion limit reduced and the upper explosion limit increased with rising initial temperature. In general, R1234yf exhibited moderate combustion and lower explosion risk, compared with traditional refrigerants.     

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”.     

Explosion of lycopodium-nicotinic acid–methane complex hybrid mixtures

With the terms “complex hybrid mixtures”, we mean mixtures made of two or more combustible dusts mixed with flammable gas or vapors in air (or another comburent).In this work, the flammability and explosion behavior of selected complex hybrid mixtures was studied. In particular, we investigated mixtures of nicotinic acid, lycopodium and methane. We performed explosion tests in the 20-L explosion vessel at different overall (nicotinic plus lycopodium) dust concentrations, nicotinic acid/lycopodium ratios, and methane concentrations.An exceptional behavior (in terms of unexpected values of rate of pressure rise and pressure) was found for the complex hybrid mixtures containing lycopodium and nicotinic acid in equal amounts. This mixture was found to be much more reactive than all the other dust mixtures, whatever the dust concentration and the methane content.     

条形障碍物对瓦斯爆炸特性影响研究

我国煤矿瓦斯爆炸事故不断出现,造成了巨大的人员伤亡和经济损失,在置障条件下研究瓦斯爆炸特性,对预防和减少瓦斯爆炸事故具有重要意义。利用水平管道式爆炸试验装置,研究密闭管道内条形障碍物的数量和阻塞率对管道内瓦斯最大爆炸压力、火焰速度、最大爆炸压力上升速率和爆炸指数的影响以及敞口状态的影响。研究表明:障碍物对瓦斯爆炸具有显著激励作用,管道内瓦斯最大爆炸压力、火焰速度、最大爆炸压力上升速率和爆炸指数均显著增大,随着障碍物数量和阻塞率的增加,激励作用越明显;敞口状态下管道内最大爆炸压力、最大爆炸压力上升速率和爆炸指数均显著减小,火焰持续传播。研究结果对防治煤矿瓦斯爆炸事故提供一定的理论支持。     

水平管道内铝粉爆炸特性的试验研究

为研究铝粉在密闭空间内爆炸特性,降低其爆炸造成的损害,利用自行设计的水平管道式可燃气体-粉尘爆炸装置,在室温下对粒度为6～8 μm,9～12 μm,15 ～ 17μm的铝粉在100～800 g/m3浓度范围内的爆炸特性进行试验研究.结果表明:铝粉在浓度为600 g/m3时,最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率最大,爆炸时间最小;铝粉浓度较低时,由于氧气充足,随着铝粉浓度增大,最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率增大,爆炸时间减小;当铝粉浓度超过600 g/m3,受到氧气浓度限制,最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率随浓度增大而减小,爆炸时间增大;相同浓度的铝粉,粒度越小,最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率越大,爆炸时间越小.粒度越小的铝粉,爆炸的可能性和危险性越大.     

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.     

螺旋形障碍物对瓦斯爆炸影响的研究

瓦斯爆炸事故给煤矿生产、国家经济发展以及人民的生命财产造成了巨大损失,因此,在置障条件下研究瓦斯爆炸特性,对预防和减少瓦斯爆炸事故具有重要意义。利用水平管道式气体爆炸实验装置,研究了螺旋形障碍物对瓦斯最大爆炸压力以及最大爆炸压力上升速率的影响。结果表明:螺旋形障碍物的存在对瓦斯爆炸的爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率有明显促进的影响,随螺旋形障碍物螺旋的增加,对最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率的激励作用越明显。     

狭长管道油气爆炸流场分布特征规律及分析

为研究狭长管道油气爆炸流场分布特征规律,搭建了狭长管道油气爆炸实验系统,并在狭长密闭管道中进行了油气爆炸实验。通过采集爆炸超压值和火焰强度值并进行分析,得到以下结论:随着初始油气体积分数的增大,管道沿线最大爆炸超压值和升压速率均呈现先增大后减小的趋势,在1.75%时达到最大,并且初始油气体积分数越接近1.75%,升压速率增大越快;根据管道沿线最大超压分布规律可将初始油气体积分数分为1.25%~1.55%、1.55%~2.20%、2.20%~2.65%3个部分;管道末端出现二次爆炸现象,爆炸超压变化曲线可分为点火延迟、一次爆炸、二次爆炸、振荡衰减4个阶段;火焰持续时间随油气体积分数的增加先下降后上升,油气体积分数为1.75%时火焰持续时间最短。