Experimental investigation for the effect of bust pressure on hydrogen explosion venting

Abstract

A series of experiments are carried out to investigate the effect of burst pressure on hydrogen explosion venting in a 20 L square vessel. Pressure buildup and flame evolution are recorded using piezoelectric pressure transducers, high speed camera, high speed infrared camera and schlieren system. The results show that both the maximum explosion pressure (Pmax) inside and outside the vessel increase with the increasing burst pressure, and the Pmax in the external space decreases rapidly with the increase of the distance from the vent port. Compared to the burst pressure of 0 kPa, the Pmax inside the vessel and at 1200 mm increased by 79.1 % and 153.6 %, respectively, when the burst pressure was 325 kPa. The venting flame surface during the propagation is smoother with the increasing burst pressure, the width and area of the flame also increases. There is little effect of burst pressure on the maximum flame propagation distance (Lmax), but with the increase of burst pressure, the flame propagation time is shortened and the average propagation velocity is increased. The venting flame propagation time is shortened from 5.0 ms to 3.5 ms with the burst pressure increases from 0 kPa to 325 kPa. The high temperature zone of venting flame is mainly distributed in the flame front, while the maximum flame temperature (Tmax) gradually increases with the increase of burst pressure. The increase in burst pressure results in an increase in the turbulence intensity inside the vessel and an advance in the time to stabilization inside the vessel. Furthermore, the moment at which flow backflow occurs at the vent port is advanced from 16.5 ms to 8.5 ms with the increase in burst pressure.