Effects of ignition location on CH4/air explosion characteristic in a spherical bomb

Abstract

To build methane anti-explosion storage equipment, the influence of the ignition location on the CH4/air explosion in a spherical equipment was investigated. A two-step CH4/air reaction mechanism was developed and it considered the effect of heat transfer on the explosion. The effect of methane explosion pressure on heat loss was studied. The results show that the maximum explosion pressure of central ignition is 0.72 MPa under the heat loss simulation. The peak pressure of the upper and lower end-wall explosion is about 79.2 % and 83.3 % of the central ignition explosion, respectively, and the experimental results verifies the simulation results. Therefore, the reason for the highest peak pressure of central ignition methane explosion is that the reaction speed of central ignition methane explosion is the fastest, and the heat loss is the lowest. The difference in peak pressure between the upper and lower wall surfaces is due to the buoyancy effect accelerates the reaction rate of the lower end-wall ignition. In the simulation time range, the heat radiation at different ignition locations accounts for more than 70 % of the total heat loss, and radiation heat transfer plays a leading role in the total heat loss.