Experimental and Numerical Study of Ignition and Flame Propagation for Methane–Air Mixtures in Small Vessels

Methane is one of the most common gaseous fuels that also exist in nature as the main part of the natural gas, the flammable part of biogas or as part of the reaction products from biomass pyrolysis. In this respect, the biogas and biomass installations are always subjected to explosion hazards due...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProcesses Vol. 9; no. 6; p. 998
Main Authors Prodan, Maria, Ghicioi, Emilian, Laszlo, Robert, Nalboc, Irina, Suvar, Sonia, Nicola, Aurelian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 04.06.2021
Subjects
Biogas
Biomass
Burning
Burning rate
Electrostatic discharges
Energy
Experiments
Explosions
Flame propagation
Flammability
Flammable gases
Gaseous fuels
Gases
Hazards
Heat
Ignition
Initial pressure
Methane
Natural gas
Phase transitions
Pressure
Propagation
Pyrolysis
Radiation
Reaction products
Velocity
Vessels
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Summary:Methane is one of the most common gaseous fuels that also exist in nature as the main part of the natural gas, the flammable part of biogas or as part of the reaction products from biomass pyrolysis. In this respect, the biogas and biomass installations are always subjected to explosion hazards due to methane. Simple methods for evaluating the explosion hazards are of great importance, at least in the preliminary stage. The paper describes such a method based on an elementary analysis of the cubic law of pressure rise during the early stages of flame propagation in a symmetrical cylindrical vessel of small volume (0.17 L). The pressure–time curves for lean, stoichiometric and rich methane–air mixtures were recorded and analyzed. From the early stages of pressure–time history, when the pressure increase is equal to or less than the initial pressure, normal burning velocities were evaluated and discussed. Qualitative experiments were performed in the presence of a radioactive source of 60Co in order to highlight its influence over the explosivity parameters, such as minimum ignition energy, maximum rate of pressure rise, maximum explosion pressure and normal burning velocity. The results are in agreement with the literature data.
ISSN:2227-9717
2227-9717
DOI:10.3390/pr9060998