The experimental study on deflagration dynamics of premixed flame in T-type tube

Abstract

ABSTRACT To further investigate the flame dynamics inside the special tubes, experiments were carried out in a T-type tube to investigate the effect of the equivalence ratio and the opening ratio on the deflagration of the methane-air premixed mixture. The changes of flame structure, propagation velocity and overpressure during flame propagation are analyzed. The experimental results shown when equivalence ratio was 1.0 and the outlets was fully open, the mixture burned completely, the flame propagation velocity was the highest, it taken only 51 ms for the flame to spread to the exits at both ends and the flame shape was more symmetrical. Under the same equivalence ratio, the increase of the opening ratio would cause the flame propagation velocity to increase, but the overpressure would decrease. When the opening ratio was 0.25, the resistance encountered during the flame propagation process was the largest, and the turbulence at the fork also increased, the interaction between the two caused the maximum overpressure of 0.58 bar at this time. The coupling effect of overpressure and flame front velocity could also clearly show that the two were positively correlated, and the velocity of the flame propagating to the left and right ends of the horizontal tube was symmetrical. When the equivalence ratio was 1.0, as the opening ratio increases, the time to reach the maximum overpressure peak shown a linear downward trend. These findings add to our knowledge of the deflagration dynamics of special tubes.