Modelling of hydrogen deflagration in a vented vessel

Hydrogen Deflagration inside closed and vented 2.3 m diameter vessels were simulated by using the GOTHIC lumped-parameter computer code. Different cell arrangements were used in the modelling. Other parameters such as flame speed and hydrogen concentration were studied. It was found that the calculated peak pressures for cases using the experimental measured burn durations were close to the pressures measured from the experiments. When the default flame speed was used, higher peak pressure was predicted by GOTHIC. This could be explained by the the fact that the default flame speed used in the GOTHIC burn model was based on the results of a large scale test with moderate turbulence level. However, the overall results of the pressure transients were comparable with the experimental data. In addition, time and spatial convergencies of the model were also studied. The peak pressure estimated by modelling the sphere as five or more spherical cells was shown to converge to within +/- 3 percent. (author). 8 refs., 6 tabs., 9 figs