Hazards of Propylene Oxide Aerosols in the Secondary Explosion

ABSTRACT

Explosion often has a chain reaction in the accident field. The aerosol is injected into the high-temperature and high-pressure area produced in the first explosion and a superimposed explosion may be induced. To study this chain process, hazards in the secondary explosion of propylene oxide aerosol was numerically simulated. The superimposed explosion overpressure and temperature of propylene oxide aerosol produced in the secondary explosion are much higher than those in the first explosion. The overpressure of 0.5MPa and the temperature of 2200 K in the first explosion are increased to higher than 2.6 MPa and 3300 K in the secondary explosion, respectively. The secondary explosions of fuel aerosol are even more terrifying in the accident field. More attention should be paid to the superimposed explosion effect. The aerosols with the smaller droplet sizes react more quickly after they are injected into the high-temperature area produced in the first explosion. The superimposed pressure of aerosol with the smaller droplet sizes is higher in near field, but its effect range is shorter than that with the larger droplet sizes. The effect of droplet sizes on superimposed explosion overpressures for the PO aerosol with droplet sizes smaller than 0.2 mm is slight.

KEYWORDS:

• Propylene oxide
• superimposed explosion
• aerosol
• numerical simulations

Acknowledgments

The research presented in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11772057, 11972089).

Additional information

Funding

This work  was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [11772057, 11972089].