Study on the combined effect of duct scale and SBC concentration on duct-vented methane-air explosion

Abstract

A gas explosion is often vented to a safe location by means of a discharge duct. However, the presence of a discharge duct increases the explosion severity in the vessel, inducing a higher explosion overpressure compared to a simply vented vessel. To reduce the explosion overpressure in the vessel, an experimental study was performed to suppress the methane-air explosions in a 5 L vessel connected to a discharge duct of different scales (e.g., length and diameter) and with various sodium bicarbonate concentrations. The results show that the initial flame propagation process in the vessel was basically similar in the simply vented vessel and in the vessel vented through a discharge duct (i.e., ducted-vessel). In the middle and late stages of flame propagation in the vessel, the flame fragmentation was more pronounced for the ducted-vessel. Moreover, the degree of flame fragmentation in the vessel increased with the duct length. The flame structure in the vessel was more irregular for a larger vent coefficient (Kv = 9.75). The more pronounced quenching in the short duct (250 mm duct) is related to the high inhibition efficiency due to the leakage of a large amount of sodium bicarbonate (SBC) powder into the discharge duct while in the long duct (750 mm duct) the disturbance is due to the strong turbulence. The appropriate SBC concentration can transform the mechanism for the pressure rise in the vessel. At high powder concentrations the maximum pressure in the vessel is dictated by the flame reaching the vessel wall, while at low concentrations the maximum pressure is dominated by the pressure (i.e., burn-up) in the discharge duct. There is an approximately linear correlation between the maximum pressure and the average flame velocity in the discharge duct for a given powder concentration, and a linear relationship between the maximum pressures in the vessel and the duct independent of the SBC concentration. Through the analysis of the flame dynamics (e.g. flame morphology, flame propagation velocity and turbulence) and friction resistance induced by the varying duct scales, the suppression efficiency of SBC powder in the vessel is higher for a longer and narrower discharge duct.