An Experimental Study of the Explosion Parameters of Vapor-Liquid Mixtures of Nitroethane/Air

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe explosion hazards characterizing vapor-liquid mixtures (mists) are commonly overlooked, resulting in significant damage within processing industries that use these mixtures. This article presents new experimental data that enable the quantitative evaluation of the effects of vapor-liquid mixtures of nitroethane/air on various explosion parameters. A series of experiments was conducted as follows: First, at mean Sauter mean diameter (SMD, D32=6Vp/Ap, where Ap and Vp are the surface area and volume of the particle, respectively) values of 19.33 and 33.75 μm, two sets of vapor-liquid mixtures of nitroethane/air at various concentrations were obtained. Subsequently, experiments were conducted, and the explosion pressure and temperature of the two sets of vapor-liquid mixtures of nitroethane/air at various concentrations were analyzed. The flame temperatures and explosion pressures, maximum rate of pressure rise [dP/dt]max, maximum rate of temperature rise [dT/dt]max, flame propagation delay time, and lower explosion limit (LEL) were analyzed. At both mean SMD values (19.64 and 34.40 μm), the peak pressure of the vapor-liquid mixtures of nitroethane/air increased as the total concentration was increased, within the flammable range. However, the total concentration of the maximum peak temperature at a mean SMD of 19.64 μm was less than that at a mean SMD of 34.40 μm, with values of 418.38 and 631.20 g m−3, respectively. For a similar concentration of the gaseous-phase or vapor-liquid mixture of nitroethane/air, the [dP/dt]max of the vapor-liquid mixtures of nitroethane/air was significantly larger than that of the gaseous-phase nitroethane/air mixtures.