Experimental and numerical study on explosion characteristics and hazards of methane-air mixtures in a chamber

ABSTRACT

The high-frequency failure of hoses inside residential kitchens is easy to cause natural gas explosion accidents. A small-scale gas explosion experiment platform like a kitchen was constructed in this work. Three sets of explosion experiments for methane-air mixtures with 7.7%, 9.5%, and 11.2% were performed, respectively, and the explosion venting characteristics were analyzed. The influence of vent area ratio, vent opening pressure, and mass per unit area of pressure relief panels on the explosion hazards (i.e., explosion overpressure, flame temperature, dynamic pressure, explosion wind velocity, and combustion rate) were investigated using CFD simulations. Meanwhile, the accuracy of numerical model was validated against experimental data. The results show that the maximum peak overpressure at 9.5% could reach up to 5.55 kPa, whereas that was 2.34 kPa at 7.7% and 5.09 kPa at 11.2%. The numerical model with thermal radiation effect could reproduce the experimental results effectively. The vent area ratio and vent opening pressure have great influence on the external damage distances, whereas there is little effect of mass per unit area. The secondary injuries caused by flame temperature, dynamic pressure, explosion wind velocity, and combustion rate outside the buildings except explosion overpressure should be also paid special attention in a gas explosion accident.

KEYWORDS:

• Methane-air mixtures
• experiment
• CFD simulation
• dynamic characteristics
• explosion hazards

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52074237).

Acknowledgements

All authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52074237). All authors also deeply appreciate the editors’ and reviewers’ comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Nomenclature

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wenling Jiao

Wenling Jiao, Doctor, Professor, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. Main research interests: Gas safety technology.

Bin Song

Bin Song*, Doctor, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. Main research interests: Gas explosion safety, Quantitative risk assessment.

Kang Cen

Kang Cen, Doctor, Professor, School of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Main research interests: Gas pipeline and station integrity evaluation.

Hanyue Zhang

Hanyue Zhang, PetroChina Southwest Oil and gas field company, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Main research interests: Indoor gas safety.

Guoqing Liu

Guoqing Liu, Sichuan Xinshuntong Natural Gas Co., Ltd. Muchuan gas company, Leshan, Sichuan, China. Main research interests: Indoor gas safety.

Xinghao Tian

Xinghao Tian, Doctor , School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. Main research interests: Gas leakage detection technology.