Experimental Investigation into Shockwave and Flame Characteristics of Hydrogen Released through Various Pressure Relief Devices

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation into shockwave and flame characteristics of compressed hydrogen released through various types of pressure relief devices (PRDs) for which data have not been previously reported. Burst disks and safety valves with different set pressure (P0) of 22–140 MPa were tested. Shockwave intensity/velocity spontaneous ignition/flame behavior was monitored by in-situ pressure/light sensors, respectively. Previous works have mostly focused on burst disks with low P0 (under 10 MPa), leaving safety valves and high-pressure burst disks uninvestigated. It was found that shockwave/spontaneous ignition behavior differs with PRD types. Spontaneous ignition occurs in all burst disk cases, along with an ignition/self-extinguishment/reignition process with relatively low P0, which has not been revealed previously. In contrast, none of the safety valves cause spontaneous ignition, resulting from the absence of shockwave due to lower overpressure values/rise rate during release. This suggests that shockwave formed by sudden release is the most dominant factor in spontaneous ignition. Also, the occurrence of self-extinguishment does not guarantee the absence of jet flame. This work provides a comprehensive database revealing shockwave and flame characteristics of hydrogen released through different PRDs, which offers basic data and theoretical support for the safety and risk assessment of high-pressure hydrogen facilities.