Experimental Study on the Performance of Quenching Mesh for an Equipment Protection during a Hydrogen Combustion

An igniter has been used as one of the important tools for the control of the hydrogen concentration in the containment. However, the hydrogen control method using an igniter is accompanied essentially with a combustion, which may result in damaging the equipment that should be operated during/after severe accidents. In this paper, an equipment protection test during a hydrogen combustion was carried out using a quenching mesh which is a kind of flame arrester. The temperatures at the surface of the model equipment were measured during the hydrogen combustion when the quenching mesh with about a 0.3 mm gap distance surrounded the model equipment. The effects of the initial pressure and the flame velocity were investigated. The surface temperatures of the model equipment were increased with the initial pressure rise for a 10% hydrogen concentration. The flame velocity with 25 m/s had not an effect on the increase of the surface temperatures of the model equipment for a 9% hydrogen concentration. (authors)