Experimental research on hydrogen/air explosion inhibition by the ultrafine water mist

This experimental study focused on the inhibition of ultrafine water mist on hydrogen explosion inside the closed vessel. The inhibition law and mechanism were studied through changes of explosion intensity, flame propagation velocity and temperature under different mist concentrations. Results indicate that flame propagation and pressure rise inside the closed vessel were corresponding. Explosion intensity was reduced after adding mist, which was mainly manifested in the reductions of explosion pressure and flame propagation velocity. Flame was accelerated to extinguish and the inhibition effect was enhanced with increasing mist concentration. However, the explosion prussure did not present obvious reduction as the mist concentration reached a certain value. Besides, it indicates that the absoption heat effect of ultrafine water mist was an important factor on hydrogen explosion inhibition by the reductions of flame temperature and propagation velocity. The inhibition effect was mainly attributed to the combination effect of physical and chemical inhibitions.     

Experimental study of propane/air premixed flame dynamics with hydrogen addition in a meso-scale quartz tube

The combustion process of propane/air premixed flame in meso-scale quartz tubes with different hydrogen additions was investigated experimentally to explain the flame-wall interaction mechanism. The ranges of different flame regimes were obtained by changing the flow rates of propane and hydrogen. The effects of hydrogen addition, inlet velocity and equivalence ratio were analyzed. The results show that the hydrogen addition broadens the operation ranges of fast flame regime and slow flame regime significantly. The flame propagation speed is in the same order of the thermal wave speed in solid wall for the slow flames. In fast flame regime, the flame propagation speed has an inverse correlation with the inlet flow velocity irrespective of the equivalence ratio. With the increase of the equivalence ratio, the maximum flame speed in fast flame regime decreases gradually, while the maximum flame speed in slow flame regime increases continually. It indicates that rich fuel condition suppresses the fast flame and promotes the slow flame. In slow flame regime, the output thermal efficiency is dominated by the inlet velocity and equivalence ratio.     

Experimental studies on the explosion indices in turbulent stoichiometric H2/CH4/air mixtures

Explosion characteristics of the stoichiometric hydrogen/methane/air mixtures with different hydrogen fractions (λ) and different turbulent intensities (u'_rms) in a fan-jet-stirred spherical explosion vessel. From the experimental results, it could be clearly found that both the maximum explosion overpressure (p_max) and the maximum rise rate of overpressure rose with the increase of u'_rms, but the major reasons to such rising were not totally the same. In turbulence, with the increase of λ, p_max declined but (dp/dt)_max rose, and such behaviours were mainly attributed to the completion on the variations between propagation speed and adiabatic explosion pressure. The explosion duration (t_c) was also measured, it rose with the increase of u'_rms and/or λ for the enhancement on propagation albeit such enhancement was attributed to different mechanism for different influence factors. The variations of deflagration index (K_G) indicated that the hazardous level of stoichiometric hydrogen/methane mixtures would become more hazardous in the presence of turbulence. Furthermore, the heat loss during the explosion also was calculated and analysed. The results reported in this article could provide more basic but important information to practical utilizations of hydrogen/methane blended fuels, especially on the safety protection strategies.     

Experimental and numerical study on premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in a horizontal rectangular closed duct

Hydrogen is a promising energy in the future, and it is desirable to characterize the combustion behavior of its blends with air. The premixed hydrogen/air flame microstructure and propagation in a horizontal rectangular closed duct were recorded using high-speed video and Schlieren device. Numerical simulation was also performed on Fluent CFD code to compare with the experimental result. A tulip flame is formed during the flame propagating, and then the tulip flame formation mechanism was proposed based on the analysis. The induced reverse flow and vortex motion were observed both in experiment and simulation. The interactions among the flame, reverse flow and vortices in the burned gas change the flame shape and ultimately it develops into a tulip flame. During the formation of the tulip flame, the tulip cusp slows down and stops moving after its slightly forward moving, and then, it starts to move backward and keeps on a longer time, after that, it moves forward again. The structure of the tulip flame is becoming less stable with its length decreasing in flame propagation direction. The flame thickness increases gradually which is due to turbulence combustion.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation on hydrogen cloud explosion subjected to external turbulence

This work is to experimentally and theoretically explore the hydrogen cloud explosion subjected to external turbulence. In the experiments, the flame characteristics and explosion pressure are obtained using high-speed camera and pressure sensor. In the theoretical calculation, the peak explosion pressure is obtained using LM, LMIET and TM method. The results indicated that most flame characteristics in the experiments are located in the zone of wrinkled flamelets. The explosion-related parameters including flame propagation velocity, peak explosion pressure and peak rate of pressure rise continue to increase as the gear level increases from G0 to G3, increase firstly and then decrease as the equivalence ratio increases from Φ = 0.5 to Φ = 3.0. Due to ignoring flame acceleration propagation induced by flame instabilities, external turbulence and flame-induced turbulence, the peak explosion pressure obtained using experimental method is significantly larger than that obtained using LM method. Owing to considering the limit value of flame wrinkling level induced flame instabilities and flame-induced turbulence, the peak explosion pressure obtained using experimental method is significantly lower than that obtained using LMIET and TM method.     

Experimental study and three-dimensional simulation of premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in a closed duct

An experimental and numerical study of premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in a closed duct is presented. High-speed schlieren photography is used in the experiment to record the changes in flame shape and location. The pressure transient during the combustion is measured using a pressure transducer. A dynamic thickened flame model is applied to model the premixed combustion in the numerical simulation. The four stages of the flame dynamics observed in the experiment are well reproduced in the numerical simulation. The oscillations of the flame speed and pressure growth, induced by the pressure wave, indicate that the pressure wave plays an important role in the combustion dynamics. The predicted pressure dynamics in the numerical simulation is also in good agreement with that in the experiment. The close correspondence between the numerical simulation and experiment demonstrate that the TF approach is quite reliable for the study of premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in the closed duct. It is shown that the flame wrinkling is important for the flame dynamics at the later stages.     

Effect of the initial pressures on evolution of intrinsically unstable hydrogen/air premixed flame fronts

Laminar premixed flame front may be wrinkled due to the hydrodynamic and diffusive-thermal instabilities. This may lead to the occurrence of the cellular structure and the self-acceleration. The lean unstable hydrogen/air premixed flame at various initial pressures are studied to clarify the effect of the initial pressure on the evolution of the unstable laminar flame. Linear and nonlinear development stages of the unstable flame are simulated and investigated separately. In the linear stage, the initial sinusoidal wave disturbance on the flame front will still keep its initial configuration. The growth rate increases firstly and then decreases with the increase of the wavenumbers. The effect of the self-acceleration on the unstable flame front will be stronger in the linear stage at the higher initial pressure, since there are larger thermal expansion and constant Lewis number for hydrogen/air premixed flame at higher pressure. There are little discrepancies for the calculated growth rates with those predicted by the revised dispersion relation. The nonlinear stage of the unstable flame propagation could be divided into two stages, the transitional and the stable nonlinear stages. In the transitional stage, the flame front cells splits, merges and moves all the time and the initial wavenumber has a great influence on the cell evolution process. With the evolution of the cell on the flame front, the cellular structure on the flame front will not change greatly with the initial wavenumbers in the stable nonlinear stage. The effect of self-acceleration due to the wrinkling of the flame front at this stage is weakened with the increase of the initial pressure. At the higher pressure, more wrinkled structures with smaller mean curvature are distributed on the flame front. At last, results show that the flame front will propagate faster for the larger computation domain. Based on the fractal theory, the fractal dimension of lean hydrogen/air premixed flame with the equivalence ratio of 0.6 at 0.5 MPa in the 2D domain is obtained and around 1.26.     

Experimental and theoretical study on the suppression effect of CF3CHFCF3 (FM-200) on hydrogen-air explosion

This study experimentally and numerically determined the effect of FM-200 on H₂/air explosion. Firstly, the explosion pressure was investigated to evaluate the suppression efficiency. The results indicated that the effect of FM-200 on H₂/air explosion was quite different for various equivalence ratios. FM-200 could enhance the explosion at lean mixture, but suppress the explosion at rich mixture. Then, the burning velocity, heat production and temperature free radicals were investigated. The results also demonstrated that FM-200 exhibited stronger suppression effect in rich explosion. In addition, the increase of free radicals indicated the enhancement effect of FM-200 at lean explosion. Last, the analysis of sensitivity and reaction path was performed to understand the suppression kinetics. It was shown that R1466 and R1468 could suppress explosion at Φ = 1.3 and 1.6, however, they changed into promoting explosion at Φ = 0.8 and 1.0. Moreover, the reaction path analysis indicated that CHF:CF₂→CHF:O→CO could enhance explosion at Φ = 0.8. For CHF:CF₂→CH₂F→HF, it played an important role in scavenging H to suppress explosion at Φ = 1.6. Furthermore, it was indicated that there was a competition between the enhancement and suppression effect at Φ = 1.3.     

Experimental and numerical study on lean premixed methane–hydrogen–air flames at elevated pressures and temperatures

Experimental and numerical study on the lean methane–hydrogen–air flames at elevated pressures and temperatures was conducted. The unstretched laminar burning velocities and Markstein lengths were obtained over a wide range of hydrogen fractions at elevated pressures and temperatures. The sensitivity analysis and flame structure were also analyzed. The results show good agreement between the computed results and experimental data. The unstretched laminar burning velocities are increased with the increase of initial temperature and hydrogen fraction, and they are decreased with the increase of initial pressure. With the increase of initial pressure and hydrogen fraction, Markstein lengths are decreased, indicating the increase of flame instability. Laminar burning velocity is depended on the competition between the main chain branching reaction and chain recombination reaction. The chain branching reaction is a temperature-sensitive reaction, while the recombination reaction is a temperature-insensitive reaction. Numerical study shows that the suppression (or enhancement) of overall chemical reaction with the increase of initial pressure (or temperature) is closely linking to the decrease (or increase) of H, O and OH mole fractions in the flames. Strong correlation is existed between burning velocity and maximum radical concentrations of H and OH radicals in the reaction zone of premixed flames.     

Inerting effect of carbon dioxide on confined hydrogen explosion

Taking maximum flame propagation velocity, maximum explosion pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise and time-average of rising pressure impulse as index, this paper is aimed at evaluating the inerting effects of carbon dioxide on confined hydrogen explosion by varying initial pressure, carbon dioxide addition and equivalence ratio. The results indicated that under enhancing hydrodynamic instability, the stronger flame destabilization occurs with the increase of initial pressure. At Φ = 0.8 and Φ = 1.0, the destabilization effect of thermodiffusive instability continues to increase with the increase of carbon dioxide addition. At all equivalence ratios, the destabilization effect of hydrodynamic instability decreases monotonously with the increase of carbon dioxide addition. All of maximum flame propagation velocity, maximum explosion pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise and time-average of rising pressure impulse reach the peak value at Φ = 1.5, and decrease significantly with increasing carbon dioxide addition. The inerting effect of carbon dioxide could be attributed to the reduction of thermal diffusivity, flame temperature and active radicals. The chemical effect of carbon dioxide reaches the peak value at Φ = 1.0. With the increase of carbon dioxide addition, the chemical effect continues to decrease at Φ = 0.8 and Φ = 1.0, and increase monotonously at Φ = 2.5.     

The flow field behaviours of under-expansion jet flame in premixed hydrogen/air explosion venting

The short chemical reaction time and high heat release of hydrogen fuel make a fine propulsion performance. Hydrogen is recognized as an excellent new resource. However, the inherent hazard of combustion and explosion should not be ignored. In this paper, the formation of the under-expansion jet flame (UEJF) of premixed hydrogen/air in explosion venting was simulated by ANSYS Fluent, and the wave system structures of the UEJF were systematically analyzed. The changes of pressure, Mach number, and main gas mass fraction distribution in the formation of the UEJF structures were described. The results indicated that the pressure difference at the outlet of explosion venting tube induced the intersection of expansion wave and reflected wave, and the formation of an obvious negative pressure area in the flow field. Meanwhile, alternating changes of the pressure in the jet center area propagated forward with the flame, resulting in the generation of UEJF. The fluxion of airflow at the outlet of explosion venting tube can be regarded as Prandtl-Meyer flow. The expansion angle was a positive correlation to the Mach number and the pressure ratio of the internal and external of the explosion venting tube. The distribution of H₂O, O₂, and –OH on the Mach disk revealed that the residual hydrogen reacted with O₂ to produce secondary or multiple explosions. Therefore, the attention and research on the hazard of the under-expansion jet field should be strengthened.     

Anchoring of turbulent premixed hydrogen/air flames at externally heated walls

A joint experimental and numerical investigation of turbulent flame anchoring at externally heated walls is presented. The phenomenon has primarily been studied for laminar flames and micro-combustion while this study focuses on large-scale applications and elevated Reynolds number flows. Therefore, a novel burner design is developed and examined for a diverse set of operating conditions. Hydroxyl radical chemiluminescence measurements are employed to validate the numerical method. The numerical investigation evaluates the performance of various hydrogen/air kinetics, Reynolds-averaged turbulence models and the eddy dissipation concept (EDC) as a turbulence-chemistry interaction model. Simulation results show minor differences between detailed chemical mechanisms but pronounced deviations for a reduced kinetic. The baseline k-ω turbulence model is assessed to most accurately predict flame front position and shape. Universal applicability of EDC modeling constants is contradicted. Conclusively, the flame anchoring concept is considered a promising approach for pilot flames in continuous combustion devices.     

Experimental research on unconfined hydrogen explosion of different gas scale and the overpressure prediction method

In this research, unconfined hydrogen experiments are performed in 1 m³ and 27 m³ gas scale with gas concentration varying from lean-burn to rich burn. The results show that the flame travels fastest upwards and slowest downwards, which makes the flame shape irregularly spherical. The critical flame scales for the extra acceleration in the upward direction and for the deceleration in the downward direction are both smaller in 1 m³ gas scale. The acceleration exponent α is higher in the upward direction. With the gas scale increasing, the value of α increases gradually. For φ = 0.8, 1.0 and 1.5, the equivalent flame radius and the explosion overpressure in different gas scales overlap before the film rupture. According to the wrinkled laminar flame assumption and the self-similar theory, an overpressure prediction model is proposed based on the wrinkling factor Ξ_Δ. The predicted results agree well with the experimental data before the film rupture.     

Effects of ignition location on premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in a closed combustion tube

The dynamics of premixed hydrogen/air flame ignited at different locations in a finite-size closed tube is experimentally studied. The flame behaves differently in the experiments with different ignition positions. The ignition location exhibits an important impact on the flame behavior. When the flame is ignited at one of the tube ends, the heat losses to the end wall reduce the effective thermal expansion and moderate the flame propagation and acceleration. When the ignition source is at a short distance off one of the ends, the tulip flame dynamics closely agrees with that in the theory. And both the tulip and distorted tulip flames are more pronounced than those in the case with the ignition source placed at one of the ends. Besides, the flame–pressure wave coupling is quite strong and a second distorted tulip flame is generated. When the ignition source is in the tube center, the flame propagates in a much gentler way and the tulip flame can not be formed. The flame oscillations are weaker since the flame–pressure wave interaction is weaker.     

Estimating the effect of water fog and nitrogen dilution upon the burning velocity of hydrogen deflagrations from experimental test data

Both very fine water mist fogs and oxygen depletion (via nitrogen dilution) have been suggested as possible methods of mitigating the overpressure rise should a hydrogen-air deflagration occur. A study has therefore been made to investigate the potential mitigating effect of very fine water mist fogs and oxygen reduction on the propagation of general hydrogen-oxygen-nitrogen flames. To do this a mathematical model was fitted to and used to estimate the burning velocity from a large number of pressure-time test data sets. These were obtained using a cylindrical explosion rig for both unmitigated and mitigated hydrogen-air deflagrations with nitrogen diluted (oxygen depleted) atmospheres and water fogs present. The experimental data examined covers both lean and rich hydrogen mixtures and a range of nitrogen dilution levels and water fog densities. The results suggest that the combination of high density water fog and nitrogen dilution can be extremely effective in reducing the estimated burning velocity especially for hydrogen rich H₂–O₂–N₂ mixtures with equivalence ratio >1 – even at relatively modest dilution levels where the oxygen index is reduced to 16%.     

Effect of multiple bluff bodies on hydrogen/air combustion characteristics and thermal properties in micro combustor

The bluff body is commonly used to improve micro combustion. The micro combustor with multiple rectangular bluff bodies in a single row was proposed. The effects of bluff bodies on H₂/air combustion characteristics were numerically studied. The temperature distributions, ignition position, combustion efficiency and blow-out limit were investigated via changing the total width and number of bluff bodies. The results show that the combined use of multiple bluff bodies can further expand the blow-out limit of H₂/Air. The effect of high temperature and viscous force on the flow velocity is main factors for the flame morphology. When the total width of bluff bodies is 2 mm, the blow-out limit decreases with the increase of bluff body number. When the total width of bluff bodies is 4 mm and 6 mm, the blow-out limit increases with the increase of the number of bluff bodies. With the increase of inlet velocity, the complete combustion efficiency decreases. The combustion efficiency in the combustor with wider blow-out limit decreases more slowly. It indicates that the combustor with multi-bluff bodies is more suitable for the operation conditions with high flow velocity.     

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.     

Heat transfer and wall pressure characteristics of a twin premixed butane/air flame jets

Experimental studies were carried out to investigate the flame shape and the heat transfer and wall pressure characteristics of a pair of laminar premixed butane/air flame jets impinging vertically upon a horizontal water-cooled flat plate at jet Reynolds numbers of 800, 1000 and 1200, respectively. Equivalence ratio of the butane/air mixture was maintained constantly at unity. The flame shape, the pressure distribution on the impingement plate and the heat transfer from the flame to the plate were greatly influenced by the interference occurred between the two flame jets. This interference caused a sharp pressure peak at the between-jet midpoint and the positive pressures at the between-jet area, which led to the separation of the wall jet from the impingement plate after collision. Such interference became more significant when the non-dimensional jet-to-jet spacing (S/d) and the nozzle-to-plate distance (H/d) were reduced. Heat transfer in the interaction zone between the jets was at the lowest rate due to this interference at the smallest S/d ratio of 2.6, resulting from the separation of the high-temperature inner reaction zone of the flame from the impingement plate. On the other hand, the interference enhanced the heat transfer in the interaction zone between the jets when the S/d ratio was greater than 5, by enhancing the heat transfer coefficient. The average heat flux of the impingement plate was found to increase significantly with the increasing H/d ratio until H/d=6. The present study provided detailed information on flame shape and the heat transfer and wall pressure characteristics of a twin laminar pre-mixed impinging circular flame jets, which has rarely been reported in previous studies.     

Experimental study on the effect of diluent gas on H2/CO/air mixture turbulent premixed flame

To study the effects of different diluents on the propagation characteristics of H₂/CO/air mixture turbulent premixed flames, a series of experiments were carried out in a turbulent premixed flame experimental system. The effects of turbulence intensity (0.49–1.31 m/s), dilution gas content (10%, 20%, and 30%), hydrogen fraction (50%, 70%, and 90%), and equivalence ratio (0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) on the turbulent premixed flame were studied. The results show that with the increase in hydrogen fraction or turbulence intensity or equivalence ratio, the S_T and u_t increase at the same radius. Compared with N₂ dilution, CO₂ dilution showed a more obvious inhibition effect on S_T. With the increase of Ka, S_T;35mm/u’ gradually decreased, and the extent of S_T;35mm/u’ decrease gradually became smaller. As the intensity of turbulence increases or the hydrogen fraction increases, the slope of S_T,35mm/u’ with Da/Le gradually decreases. In the turbulence intensity range of this experiment, the u_t,35mm/μ_l under nitrogen dilution condition has a larger floating range. The growth rate of u_t,35mm/μ_l at a low equivalence ratio is significantly higher than that at a high equivalence ratio.