An environmental pressure index proposal for urban development planning based on the analytic network process

This paper introduces a new approach to prioritize urban planning projects according to their environmental pressure in an efficient and reliable way. It is based on the combination of three procedures: (i) the use of environmental pressure indicators, (ii) the aggregation of the indicators in an Environmental Pressure Index by means of the Analytic Network Process method (ANP) and (iii) the interpretation of the information obtained from the experts during the decision-making process.The method has been applied to a proposal for urban development of La Carlota airport in Caracas (Venezuela). There are three options which are currently under evaluation. They include a Health Club, a Residential Area and a Theme Park. After a selection process the experts chose the following environmental pressure indicators as ANP criteria for the project life cycle: used land area, population density, energy consumption, water consumption and waste generation. By using goal-oriented questionnaires designed by the authors, the experts determined the importance of the criteria, the relationships among criteria, and the relationships between the criteria and the urban development alternatives.The resulting data showed that water consumption is the most important environmental pressure factor, and the Theme Park project is by far the urban development alternative which exerts the least environmental pressure on the area. The participating experts coincided in appreciating the technique proposed in this paper is useful and, for ranking ordering these alternatives, an improvement from traditional techniques such as environmental impact studies, life-cycle analysis, etc.     

火区调压技术在煤峪口矿的实际应用

在采场均压防灭火实验室模型模拟实验的基础上 ,总结了煤峪口矿现场实施火区的调压工艺技术。该技术包括利用调压气室平衡火区风压、提高工作面风压和堵塞地表裂隙 3项调压措施 ,其防灭火效果十分显著。在这 3项措施中 ,无论是工作面升压或气室调压失效 ,此时填堵裂隙工程则会发挥重要作用     

An experimental study of an LPG tank at low filling level heated by a remote wall fire

This paper describes an experimental study of 2300 L pressure vessels exposed to remote fire heating by a natural gas fuelled wall fire simulator. The tanks were filled to 15% capacity with commercial liquid propane. The flame intensity and distance were varied to study the effect of different heating levels on the tank and its lading.The fire simulator is first characterized with tests including fire thermocouples, radiative flux meters and thermal imaging. With the appropriate positioning of a target tank it is possible to get very realistic fire heat fluxes at the tank surface.Three tests were conducted with the 2300 L tanks filled to 15% capacity with propane. The tanks were positioned at three different distances from the wall fire resulting in measured average peak heat flux at the tank surfaces ranging between 24 and 43 kW m^?2. The data shows rapid rise in vapour space wall temperatures, significant temperature stratification in the vapour space, and moderate rate of pressure rise. These results provide excellent data for the validation of computer models used to predict the response of pressure vessels exposed to moderate heating from a remote fire.     

Investigation of ammonium nitrate based emulsion ignition characteristic

This paper presents an analysis of the observed ignition behaviors of ammonium nitrate (AN) and emulsion explosives (EE). Pure AN and EE locally ignited by a heat source do not undergo sustained combustion when the pressure is lower than some threshold value usually called the Minimum Burning Pressure (MBP). A reason for pure AN's and EE's incapable of burning was suggested, and the roles of sample water, inorganic salts, oil phase, and sensitizer were discussed. Accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) was used to study the thermal stability of EE and AN. The results also showed that MBP is of vital importance and useful for the manufacture and application of AN and EE in terms of accident prevention.     

基于突变理论的国内外火灾科学研究进展和展望

简要归纳了突变模型的特征和突变理论的应用方式,重点综述了突变理论在火灾科学中的应用情况,概括了突变理论在火灾科学中三个应用特点。针对具体油气爆炸实验数据,利用随机突变理论,对油气爆炸的突变模式进行了初步研究,说明了建立统计突变模型的可行性。最后指出了突变理论应用于火灾科学的未来研究方向。     

Scaling of dust explosion violence from laboratory scale to full industrial scale – A challenging case history from the past

The standardized K_St parameter still seems to be widely used as a universal criterion for ranking explosion violence to be expected from various dusts in given industrial situations. However, this may not be a generally valid approach. In the case of dust explosion venting, the maximum pressure P_max generated in a given vented industrial enclosure is not only influenced by inherent dust parameters (dust chemistry including moisture, and sizes and shapes of individual dust particles). Process-related parameters (degree of dust dispersion, cloud turbulence, and dust concentration) also play key roles. This view seems to be confirmed by some results from a series of large scale vented dust explosion experiments in a 500 m³ silo conducted in Norway by CMI, (now GexCon AS) during 1980–1982. Therefore, these results have been brought forward again in the present paper. The original purpose of the 500 m³ silo experiments was to obtain correlations between P_max in the vented silo and the vent area in the silo top surface, for two different dusts, viz. a wheat grain dust collected in a Norwegian grain import silo facility, and a soya meal used for production of fish farming food. Both dusts were tested in the standard 20-L-sphere in two independent laboratories, and also in the Hartmann bomb in two independent laboratories. P_max and (dP/dt)_max were significantly lower for the soya meal than for the wheat grain dust in all laboratory tests. Because the available amount of wheat grain dust was much larger than the quite limited amount of available soya meal, a complete series of 16 vented silo experiments was first performed with the wheat grain dust, starting with the largest vent area and ending with the smallest one. Then, to avoid unnecessary laborious changes of vent areas, the first experiment with soya dust was performed with the smallest area. The dust cloud in the silo was produced in exactly the same way as with the wheat grain dust. However, contrary to expectations based on the laboratory-scale tests, the soya meal exploded more violently in the large silo than the wheat grain dust, and the silo was blown apart in the very first experiment with this material. The probable reason is that the two dusts responded differently to the dust cloud formation process in the silo on the one hand and in the laboratory-scale apparatuses on the other. This re-confirms that a differentiated philosophy for design of dust explosion vents is indeed needed. Appropriate attention must be paid to the influence of the actual dust cloud generation process on the required vent area. The location and type of the ignition source also play important roles. It may seem that tailored design has to become the future solution for tackling this complex reality, not least for large storage silos. It is the view of the present author that the ongoing development of CFD-based computer codes offers the most promising line of attack. This also applies to design of systems for dust explosion isolation and suppression.     

在用压力容器的安全校核

由于在用压力容器的安全校核计算至今尚无统一技术标准，在已开展的在用压力容器定期检验工作中，进行安全校核计算困难较大，尤其是算式中参数选择、原设计标准中公式的运用，在一个地区、在全国差异都较大，甚至同一台容器不同的检验员检验和计算，就会得出不同的结论，可能造成有的压力容器提前报废，有的带隐患运行。本文对目前普遍存在的问题进行分析，找出解决问题的方法，达到对在用压力容器有效检验的目的。     

Flow and flame visualization near the upper flammability limits of methane/air and propane/air mixtures at elevated pressures

In this study, direct visualization of flow and flame from the ignition of methane/air and propane/air mixtures near the UFL at elevated pressures of up to 2.0 MPa were obtained with a test cell comprised of double-sided plexiglass and a containment vessel with double-sided glass. These visualizations allowed direct observations of ignition and flame near UFL at elevated pressures. Two distinctive features were observed in ignition at elevated pressures that differ from those under ambient pressure: the hot igniter formed a convective plume, rather than a convection cell; and the flame initiated from the top of the test cell and propagated downwards, rather than directly from the igniter. Both these distinctive features are characteristics of convection at high Rayleigh number accompanied with increased gas density at elevated pressures. Our study also shows that visualization of the formation of planar flame provides the most objective criterion for defining flammability limits at elevated pressures.     

电梯上行对加压前室的防烟效果影响

为了确定火灾中电梯运行时的活塞效应对加压前室的影响,利用数值模拟方法,以一座10层的高层建筑电梯井及前室为例,模拟火灾中低速电梯运行对前室不同加压送风量产生的压力波动。加压送风量采用常用工程计算公式得出。模拟研究结果表明,电梯井处压力受加压送风量影响较明显,且在电梯上行运动时,轿厢周围及尾端的漩涡会对电梯经过层的前室压力带来一定的波动影响;对于研究的低速电梯,其运行时对前室的压力波动较小,在一定程度上不会对前室的加压防烟效果造成明显的影响。     

Effects of ignition energy on fire and explosion characteristics of dilute hybrid fuel in ventilation air methane

Deflagration explosions of coal dust clouds and flammable gases are a major safety concern in coal mining industry. Accidental fire and explosion caused by coal dust cloud can impose substantial losses and damages to people and properties in underground coal mines. Hybrid mixtures of methane and coal dust have the potential to reduce the minimum activation energy of a combustion reaction. In this study the Minimum Explosion Concentration (MEC), Over Pressure Rise (OPR), deflagration index for gas and dust hybrid mixtures (K_st) and explosive region of hybrid fuel mixtures present in Ventilation Air Methane (VAM) were investigated. Experiments were carried out according to the ASTM E1226-12 guideline utilising a 20 L spherical shape apparatus specifically designed for this purpose.Resultsobtained from this study have shown that the presence of methane significantly affects explosion characteristics of coal dust clouds. Dilute concentrations of methane, 0.75–1.25%, resulted in coal dust clouds OPR increasing from 0.3 bar to 2.2 bar and boosting the K_st value from 10 bar m s⁻¹ to 25 bar m s⁻¹. The explosion characteristics were also affected by the ignitors’ energy; for instance, for a coal dust cloud concentration of 50 g m⁻³ the OPR recorded was 0.09 bar when a 1 kJ chemical ignitor was used, while, 0.75 bar (OPR) was recorded when a 10 kJ chemical ignitor was used.For the first time, new explosion regions were identified for diluted methane-coal dust cloud mixtures when using 1, 5 and 10 kJ ignitors. Finally, the Le-Chatelier mixing rule was modified to predict the lower explosion limit of methane-coal dust cloud hybrid mixtures considering the energy of the ignitors.