Experimental research on combined effect of obstacle and local spraying water fog on hydrogen/air premixed explosion

In order to reveal the mechanism of water fog explosion suppression and research the combined effect of water fog and obstacle on hydrogen/air deflagration, multiple sets of experiments were set up. The results show that the instability of thermal diffusion under lean combustion conditions is the main influencing factor of hydrogen/air flame surface instability, and the existence of water fog will aggravate the hydrogen/air flame surface instability. When obstacle is not considered, 8 μm, 15 μm, 30 μm water fog can significantly reduce the flame velocity and explosion overpressure of hydrogen/air, 45 μm fine water fog plays the opposite role. When considering the relative position of the water fog release position and the obstacle, the 8 μm, 15 μm, 30 μm water fog has almost no suppression effect when released near the obstacle, but a significant suppression effect occur, when using the 45 μm water fog. In the field of theoretical research, the research results not only provide an experimental basis for the fine water fog to reduce the consequences of hydrogen explosion accidents, and the optimal diameter range used by the water fog, but also provide experimental reference for the numerical simulation of hydrogen/air explosion suppression in semi-open space, and promote the development of hydrogen explosion suppression theory. In terms of engineering applications, this study can provide a theoretical basis for the layout of fire fighting equipment in the engine room of nuclear power plants or hydrogen-powered ships.     

Suppression effects of ultrafine water mist on hydrogen/methane mixture explosion in an obstructed chamber

The mitigation effects of ultrafine water mist on hydrogen/methane mixture explosions with hydrogen fraction (ϕ) of the range from 0% to 60% were experimentally studied in a vented chamber with obstacles. The spraying time, droplets size of water mist and the volume ratio of hydrogen were varied in the tests, and the key parameters that reflect the explosion characteristics such as the flame propagation imagines, flame propagation velocity, and explosion overpressure were obtained. The results show that the ultrafine water mist presents a significant mitigation effect on hydrogen/methane mixture explosions. The flame propagation structures are similar under the condition of without and with ultrafine water mist while the flame temperature is declined by the physical and chemical inhibition by ultrafine water mist. In addition, the mitigation effect increases with the increase of water mist flux. As a result, the maximum flame speed and overpressure of ϕ = 30% hydrogen/methane mixture explosion are declined by 33.3% and 58.4% under the condition of spraying for 2 min with 15 μm ultrafine water mist, respectively. Besides, the mitigation effects of ultrafine water mist on ϕ = 30% hydrogen/methane mixture explosion descends evidently with the increase of the droplets size of the range from 6 μm to 25 μm, which due to the easier evaporation and the greater total droplets surface area of the smaller water mist. However, the explosion mitigation effect of ultrafine water mist on the hydrogen/methane mixture actually descends with the increase hydrogen fraction.     

Experimental study on the interaction of fine water spray with liquid pool fires

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Comparative analysis on temperature characteristics of hydrogen-powered and traditional fossil-fueled vehicle fires in the tunnel under longitudinal ventilations

Vehicle fires in the tunnel are a great threat to the safe operation of the tunnel. Due to the rapid development of the hydrogen economy, the fire due to the hydrogen leakage could not be avoided and may bring great damage to the passengers and infrastructure. Due to the large difference between pool fires of traditional fossil-fueled and jet fires of hydrogen-powered vehicles, it is in doubt whether the existing longitudinal ventilation design could still be effective for the safety issue of hydrogen powered vehicles. To solve this problem, it is necessary to compare temperature characteristics of hydrogen-powered and traditional vehicle fires with and without longitudinal ventilations. In present work, we conducted a numerical investigation to discuss the different temperature distributions of traditional and hydrogen-fueled vehicle fires. Results indicate that the high temperature zone of the pool fire only exists above the ceiling of the vehicle. For hydrogen-powered vehicle fire, the high-speed hydrogen jet with the strong inertial force could push the hot smoke flows back to the ground. The ceiling temperature of hydrogen-powered vehicle fire is larger since hydrogen-powered vehicle has a larger heat release rate and the fire hazard of jet fires bring more danger compared with the pool fire. Although the temperature stratification is also obvious for the hydrogen-powered vehicle fire, the air temperature in the lower region could be heated and still high enough to bring a great damage to the passengers’ lives. This is quite different with the traditional pool fire. In addition, the critical ventilation velocity is also discussed. The theoretical equation could well predicted the critical ventilation velocity of traditional vehicle fires. For hydrogen-powered vehicle fires, the critical ventilation velocity could reach up to 6 m/s. The theoretical equation could not well predict the critical ventilation velocity of hydrogen-powered vehicle fires due to exist of hydrogen jet fires.     

Suppression of hydrogen/oxygen/nitrogen explosions by fine water mist containing sodium hydroxide additive

Complementary sets of experiments, consisting of burning velocity measurements and vented explosion tests, have been undertaken for a wide range of hydrogen–oxygen–air test compositions using fine water mist with NaOH additive (SMD ∼ 4 μm). In contrast to pure water mists, burning velocity measurements identified a critical mist concentration (for a given gas composition) above which a sudden large decrease in burning velocity is observed. The critical concentration was also found to correspond to an inerting concentration during vented explosion testing. Prior to reaching the critical concentration, the NaOH additive had a negligible effect on both the burning velocity measurements and explosion tests. This clearly indicates that the NaOH additive is acting as a chemical inhibitor. The inhibiting effect is generally considered to occur due to homogeneous gas phase mechanisms and it is thought likely that only the fraction of the entire mist (with droplet diameter < 2.5 μm) would evaporate sufficiently quickly to allow vaporised NaOH to take part in the inhibition. The experimental data obtained have enabled the construction of an inerting map to facilitate the design of a practical mist inerting system.     

Suppression of hydrogen–oxygen–nitrogen explosions by fine water mist: Part 1. Burning velocity

A work programme has been undertaken to investigate the practical viability of using fine water mists to mitigate or suppress hydrogen explosions during nuclear decommissioning operations. In the first part of this study measurements of burning velocity, required primarily for the development of explosion models, are presented. Burning velocity measurements were made with the introduction of ultrasonically generated fine water mists. With water mist, the burning velocity was reduced over a wide range of equivalence ratios for fuel-free oxygen fractions of 0.1–0.21. Flame instability increased substantially with increasing water mist density especially with lean hydrogen mixtures. The experimental results obtained for the reduction of burning velocity with entrained water mist in hydrogen–air systems are compared to computer simulated values reported earlier in the literature. An important overall objective of the work programme was to provide information to plant engineers to assess the effectiveness of using water mists for the suppression or mitigation of explosion.     

罐内式水雾灭火方法供水强度的理论及试验研究

通过对液体燃料贮罐火灾燃烧机理的分析,阐述了罐内式水雾灭火方法扑救这类火灾的可行性,并通过降低火焰温度和使罐内可燃蒸气超出燃烧极限范围的两种途径,推导出罐内式水雾灭火方法的最小灭火供水强度的估算公式,并在直径2．3 m、高1．8 m的敞口油罐中,应用这种灭火方法分别进行了多次煤油火和汽油火的灭火试验．试验证明,该灭火方法可行,估算的理论供水强度与试验结果基本符合．     

A theoretical framework for calculating full-scale jet fires induced by high-pressure hydrogen/natural gas transient leakage

Previous experimental results on full-scale jet fires induced by high-pressure hydrogen/natural gas transient leakage can only be suitable for solving practical engineering problems, or testing the limitation of previous models. Thus, this paper presents a theoretical framework for the high-pressure hydrogen/natural gas leakage and the subsequent jet fire. The proposed framework consists of a transient leakage model, a notional nozzle model, a jet flame size model, a radiative fraction correlation and a line source radiation model. The framework is validated by comparing the model predictions and experimental measurements of mass flow rate, total flame height and thermal radiation field of hydrogen, natural gas, hydrogen/natural gas mixture jet fires with a flame height up to 100 m. The comparison shows that the theoretical framework can give considerable predictions to properties of full-scale jet fires induced by high-pressure hydrogen/natural gas transient leakage.     

高压细水雾系统抑制货架障碍火的实验研究

货架火是商场超市火灾中的主要燃烧形式,对其行为规律的研究有助于该类建筑防灭火工作的开展。分析了利用高压细水雾系统灭货架火的可行性;搭建了高压细水雾灭火的实验平台,通过实验研究了高压细水雾系统控制与扑灭商场超市货架火灾的可能性;测试了细水雾的施加对该类火灾现场温度、辐射热通量强度及烟气浓度变化的影响情况;比较了货架的不同摆放形式对火灾参数的影响。实验结果表明,利用高压细水雾系统灭货架火是有效可行的。     

Effect of heat transfer through the release pipe on simulations of cryogenic hydrogen jet fires and hazard distances

Jet flames originated by cryo-compressed ignited hydrogen releases can cause life-threatening conditions in their surroundings. Validated models are needed to accurately predict thermal hazards from a jet fire. Numerical simulations of cryogenic hydrogen flow in the release pipe are performed to assess the effect of heat transfer through the pipe walls on jet parameters. Notional nozzle exit diameter is calculated based on the simulated real nozzle parameters and used in CFD simulations as a boundary condition to model jet fires. The CFD model was previously validated against experiments with vertical cryogenic hydrogen jet fires with release pressures up to 0.5 MPa (abs), release diameter 1.25 mm and temperatures as low as 50 K. This study validates the CFD model in a wider domain of experimental release conditions - horizontal cryogenic jets at exhaust pipe temperature 80 K, pressure up to 2 MPa ab and release diameters up to 4 mm. Simulation results are compared against such experimentally measured parameters as hydrogen mass flow rate, flame length and radiative heat flux at different locations from the jet fire. The CFD model reproduces experiments with reasonable for engineering applications accuracy. Jet fire hazard distances established using three different criteria - temperature, thermal radiation and thermal dose - are compared and discussed based on CFD simulation results.     

Performance of hydrogen storage tank with TPRD in an engulfing fire

The performance of a composite hydrogen storage tank with TPRD in an engulfing fire is studied. The non-adiabatic tank blowdown model, including in fire conditions, using the under-expanded jet theory is described. The model input includes thermal parameters of hydrogen and tank materials, heat flux from a fire to the tank, TPRD diameter and TPRD initiation delay time. The unsteady heat transfer from surroundings through the tank wall and liner to hydrogen accounts for the degradation of the composite overwrap resin and melting of the liner. The model is validated against the blowdown experiment and the destructive fire test with a tank without TPRD. The model accurately reproduces experimentally measured hydrogen pressure and temperature dynamics, blowdown time, and tank's fire-resistance rating, i.e. time to tank rupture in a fire without TPRD. The lower limit for TPRD orifice diameter sufficient to prevent the tank rupture in a fire and, at the same time, to reduce the flame length and mitigate the pressure peaking phenomenon in a garage to exclude its destruction, is assessed for different tanks, e.g. it is 0.75 mm for largest studied 244 L, 70 MPa tank. The phenomenon of Type IV tank liner melting for TPRD with lower diameter is revealed and its influence on hydrogen blowdown is assessed. This phenomenon facilitates the blowdown yet requires further detailed experimental validation.     

Comparisons of hazard distances and accident durations between hydrogen vehicles and CNG vehicles

A comparison study is conducted to reveal the differences of hazard distances and accident durations between hydrogen vehicles and CNG vehicles during a representative accident in an open environment, i.e gas release from thermally-activated pressure relief device (TPRD). The analysis is performed for the scenario of impinging jet fires released from 4.2 mm TPRD diameter, with release inventory assumption on the basis of similar driving range: 4 kg hydrogen storage at 35 MPa and 20 kg methane storage at 25 MPa. Results show that the release duration for CNG vehicle is over two times longer than that for hydrogen vehicle, indicating that CNG vehicle jet fire accident is more time-consuming and firefighters have to wait a longer time before they can safely approach the vehicle. For both hydrogen vehicle and CNG vehicle, the longest hazard distance near the ground occur at a few seconds after the initiation of the TPRD. Afterwards the flames will shrink and the hazard distances will decrease. For firefighters with bunker gear, they must stand at least 6 m and 14 m away from the hydrogen vehicle and CNG vehicle, respectively. For general public, a perimeter of 12 m and 29 m should be set around the accident scene for hydrogen vehicle and CNG vehicle, respectively.     

Ignition of hydrogen jet fires from high pressure storage

Self-ignition behaviour of highly transient jets from hydrogen high pressure tanks were investigated up to 26 MPa. The jet development and related ignition/combustion phenomena were characterized by high speed video techniques and time resolved spectroscopy. Video cross correlation method BOS, brightness subtraction and 1-dimensional image contraction were used for data evaluation. Results gained provided information on ignition region, flame head jet velocity, flame contours, pressure wave propagation, reacting species and temperatures. On burst of the rupture disc, the combustion of the jet starts close to the nozzle at the boundary layer to the surrounding air. Combustion velocity decelerated in correlation to an approximated drag force of constant value which was obtained by analysing the head velocity. The burning at the outer jet layer develops to an explosion converting to a nearly spherical volume at the jet head; the movement of the centroid is nearly unchanged and follows the jet front in parallel. The progress of the nearly spherical explosion could be evaluated by assuming an averaged flame ball radius. An apparent flame velocity could be derived to be about 20 m/s. It seems to increase slightly on the pressure in the tank or the related initial jet momentum. Self-initiation is nearly always achieved especially induced the interaction of shock waves and their reflections from the orifice. The combustion process is composed of shell combustion of the jet cone at the bases with a superimposed explosion of the decelerating jet head volume.     

细水雾与液体燃料火焰相互作用的小尺度实验研究及简化模型

细水雾灭火技术是可以替代哈龙灭火剂的绿色灭火技术。以此为工程背景,开展了细水雾与液体燃料火焰相互作用的小尺度实验研究,结果表明:预燃时间、喷雾气压、细水雾气源种类等参数对灭火过程有重要影响。细水雾抑制熄灭液体燃料火焰的主要机理是燃料表面冷却效应。建立的液体燃料平均温度零维简化模型与实验结果吻合较好。     

Study on hazards from high-pressure on-board type III hydrogen tank in fire scenario: Consequences and response behaviours

Exploration of thermal performances of composite high-pressure hydrogen storage tank under fire exposure were critical issues to reduce the risk of tank rupture. Three bonfire tests of type III tanks of 210 L-35 MPa with full compressed hydrogen were exposed to a pool fire to study the response behaviours in fire scenarios. Detailed data on the tank wall temperature and inner pressure were presented in this work. Prototype bonfire tests for the type III tank indicated the failure pressure limits amounted to 41.1–41.8 MPa (average 41.4 MPa). Two consequences (rupture and hydrogen blowdown) will be caused when the inner pressure beyond this limits in fire scenario. The loading-bearing capacity of the tank reduced nearly 3 times under the prescribed fire condition when compared to its average burst pressure of 123.5 MPa conducted from the hydraulic burst test. Results also shown that fire resistance rating (FRR, time to rupture) of the three tanks were 784, 666, and 596, respectively. The FRR got shorter when the tank was exposed in the engulfing fire in advance at hydrogen blowdown case.     

Generalization of the radiative fraction correlation for hydrogen and hydrocarbon jet fires in subsonic and chocked flow regimes

The radiative fraction is one key parameter to characterize the jet flame combustion dynamics and to calculate the thermal radiant heat emitted from jet fire. A theoretical analysis is conducted to clarify the key parameters that dominate the radiative fraction of jet fires, with discussion of the limitation of previous radiative fraction correlations. A completely new dimensionless group, consisting of the mass fraction of fuel at stoichiometric conditions, the density ratio of fuel gas to ambient air and the flame Froude number, is proposed to correlate the radiative fraction of jet fires. The current up-to-date experimental data are used to build the radiative fraction correlation that covers orifice exit diameters from one to hundreds of millimeter, hydrogen, methane and propane fuels, vertical and horizontal jets, buoyance- and momentum-controlled releases, subsonic, sonic and supersonic jets. It is found that the source Froude number can fit the radiative fraction of a particular fuel jet fire. However, the new dimensionless group can correlate the radiative fractions of fuel-different jet fires. The predictive capability of the new correlation exceeds that of previously published work based on the source Froude number only or the global residence time with/without correction factors.     

Quantitative risk analysis of life safety and financial loss for road accident of fuel cell vehicle

Vehicular use of hydrogen is the first attempt to apply hydrogen energy in consumers’ environment in large scale and has raised safety concerns in both public authorities and private bodies such as fire services and insurance companies. This paper analyzes typical accident progressions of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in a road collision accident. Major hydrogen consequences including impinging jet fires and catastrophic tank ruptures are evaluated separately in terms of accident duration and hazard distances. Results show that in a 70 MPa fuel cell car accident, the hazards associated with hydrogen releases would normally last for no more than 1.5 min due to the empty of the tank. For the safety of general public, a perimeter of 100 m is suggested in the accident scene if no hissing sound is heard. However, the perimeter can be reduced to 10 m once the hissing sound of hydrogen release is heard. Furthermore, risks of fatalities, injuries, and damages are all quantified in financial terms to assess the impacts of the accident. Results show that costs of fatalities and injuries contribute most to the overall financial loss, indicating that the insurance premium of fatalities and injuries should be set higher than that of property loss.     

细水雾扑灭油池火的临界条件

通过模拟灭火实验发现细水雾灭火过程中由于雾特性参数的变化而形成两种相异的灭火过程,进而通过理论分析与计算得到了细水雾通过火焰冷却扑灭油池火所需的临界条件,并通过实验室尺度实验与全尺度实验对计算结果进行了验证．在实验中还发现对于下喷式系统而言,细水雾能否穿透烟气羽流层对于细水雾系统能否灭火具有至关重要的影响,为此引入了烟气羽流与细水雾的推力比这一概念,并通过实验确定了采用下喷方式时,细水雾灭火的临界推力比大致为10．     

Predicting radiative characteristics of hydrogen and hydrogen/methane jet fires using FireFOAM

A possible consequence of pressurized hydrogen release is an under-expanded jet fire. Knowledge of the flame length, radiative heat flux as well as the effects of variations in ground reflectance is important for safety assessment. The present study applies an open source CFD code FireFOAM to study the radiation characteristics of hydrogen and hydrogen/methane jet fires. For combustion, the eddy dissipation concept for multi-component fuels recently developed by the authors in the large eddy simulation (LES) framework is used. The radiative heat is computed with the finite volume discrete ordinates model in conjunction with the weighted sum of grey gas model for the absorption/emission coefficient. The pseudo-diameter approach is used in which the corresponding parameters are calculated using the formulations of Birch et al. [24] with the thermodynamic properties corrected by the Able-Noble equation of state. The predicted flame length and radiant fraction are in good agreement with the measurements of Schefer et al. [2], Studer et al. [3] and Ekoto et al. [6]. In order to account for the effects of variation in ground surface reflectance, the emissivity of hydrogen flames was modified following Ekoto et al. [6]. Four cases with different ground reflectance are computed. The predictions show that the ground surface reflectance only has minor effect on the surface emissive power of the smaller hydrogen jet fire of Ekoto et al. [6]. The radiant fractions fluctuate from 0.168 to 0.176 close to the suggested value of 0.16 by Ekoto et al. [6] based on the analysis of their measurements.     

Plane hydrogen jets

This study is focused on understanding the structure and behaviour of hydrogen under-expanded jets from plane nozzles and their differences with circular nozzle jets. Results of numerical simulations of hydrogen highly under-expanded jets from a storage vessel at pressure 40 MPa through a circular nozzle and two plane nozzles with aspect ratios 5.0 and 12.8 respectively, all of the same cross-section area, are presented. Two stages approach is applied to simulate under-expanded unignited jets and jet fires. At the first stage, the high Mach number flow in a near field to the nozzle is simulated by compressible flow solver. At the second stage, incompressible flow solver is applied to simulated either unignited or combusting jets in the far from the nozzle field with “inner” boundary conditions taken from the first stage. The structure and behaviour of hydrogen plane highly under-expanded jets is scrutinised, including the switch-of-axis phenomenon when the exiting jet expands in the vicinity of the nozzle only in the direction of the minor nozzle axis while it contracts in the major axis direction. Simulations demonstrated that plane jets may provide faster concentration decay compared to axisymmetric jets with the same mass flow rate due to the difference in air entrainment. The concentration decay rate is shown to be a function of the plane nozzle aspect ratio. The eddy break-up model is applied to simulate under-expanded hydrogen jet fires from the equipment at pressure of 40 MPa. The circular and plane nozzle jet fire simulations are validated against experiments by Mogi and Horiguchi (2009). The simulations are in a good agreement with the experiment.