Effect of fuel concentration, inert gas dilutions, inert gas–water mist twin fluid medium dilutions, and end boundary condition on overpressure transients of premixed fuel vapor explosion

Abstract

A series of experiments were conducted in a 10L closed and vented tube with L/D = 10.0, and effects of initial fuel volume concentration, inert gas dilutions (diluted by N2 and CO2), inert gas–water mist twin fluid medium dilutions (diluted by N2-H2O twin fluid medium, CO2-H2O twin fluid medium) and end boundary conditions on overpressure transients of hydrocarbon fuel–air mixtures explosion were revealed. Results show that the overpressure-time profiles consistent with the dynamic evolution law of ‘approximately zero-1st overpressure rising stage-2nd overpressure rising stage-descending stage’, and ‘rate of overpressure rise-time’ curves exhibit the characteristics of multi-stages and multi-peaks, such as (dp/dt)(1,max), (dp/dt)(1,min), (dp/dt)(2,max) and (dp/dt)(2,min). Specifically, as the fuel volume concentration increased, both the maximum overpressures (pmax), and the maximum rates of overpressure rise ((dp/dt)(1,max) and (dp/dt)(2,max)) show a variation trend of increasing firstly and then decreasing, while the corresponding times (tmax, θ(1,max) , θ(2,max)) show a total different variation trend. Moreover, when YCH is lower than 1.88%, the value of (dp/dt)(1,max) is greater than (dp/dt)(2,max), while the value of (dp/dt)(1,max) was less than (dp/dt)(2,max), and when YCH was higher than 1.88%. The addition of N2 and CO2 can obviously inhibit the explosion intensity of hydrocarbon fuel, and the inhibition effect of CO2 is better than that of N2. Due to the synergy inhibition effect of the inert gas and ultrafine water mist, all the values of pmax, (dp/dt)(1,max) and (dp/dt)(2,max) diluted by inert gas-ultrafine water mist twin fluid medium were smaller than those diluted by sole inert gases. In addition, there are significant differences in the overpressure-time and the rate of overpressure rise-time profiles between closed and end venting explosions. The values of maximum overpressure and the rates of overpressure rise of the closed explosion were higher than those of the venting explosion, but the minimum rate of overpressure rise is a smaller one.