Experimental Investigation on the Effect of a Reduced Pressure on the Combustion Characteristics and Flame Height of Gaseous Fuel Jets in Parallel Sidewalls

Abstract

The increasing energy demand stimulates the increase of natural gas transmitting pipeline all around China and provoke serious fire risks due to accidental pipeline breaks and gas leakage, especially in cities at different altitudes. This work concerns the pressure effect on the flame height of buoyant jet diffusion flames restricted by parallel sidewalls in reduced pressure, which does exist in natural gas leakage fire accident in high plateau areas. Experiments were conducted in Lhasa, Tibet (Altitude: 3650m, Pressure: 0.64 atm), and the corresponding comparison results conducted in normal pressure are referred from our previous work obtained in Hefei, Anhui (Altitude: 50m, Pressure: 1.0 atm). The evolution of the flame heights of a buoyant jet diffusion flame restricted by parallel sidewalls in a reduced pressure are examined, and the major new findings are that the evolution of a parabolic uprising buoyant vortex at the flame boundary and the flame height vary much like that in normal pressure as the ...