Experimental Study of Flame Propagation in Semiconfined Geometries with Obstacles

Abstract

Accidents in which large quantities of liquified natural gas (LNG) or other combustible materials are spilled can potentially lead to disastrous consequences, especially if the dispersing combustible cloud finds a suitable ignition source. So far, very little is known about the detailed behavior of a large burning cloud. Full-scale experiments are economically prohibitive, and therefore one must rely on laboratory and field experiments of smaller size, scaling up the results to make predictions about larger spill accidents. In this paper we describe our laboratory-scale experiments with a combustible propane/air mixture in various partially confined geometries. We summarize the experimental results and compare them with calculated results based on numerical simulations of the experiments. Our observations suggest that the geometry of the partial confinement is of primary importance; turbulence-producing obstacles can cause acceleration in the flame front and, more important, can cause a faster burnout of the combustible vapor.