Progress in BNL High-Temperature Hydrogen Combustion Research Program

The objectives of the BNL High-Temperature Hydrogen Combustion Research Program are discussed. The experimental facilities are described and two sets of preliminary experiments are presented. Chemical reaction time experiments have been performed to determine the length of time reactive mixtures of interest can be kept at temperature before reaction in the absence of ignition sources consumes the reactants. Preliminary observations are presented for temperatures in the range 588K--700K. Detonation experiments are described in which detonation cell width is measured as a measure of mixture sensitivity to detonation. Preliminary experiments are described which are being carried out to establish data reproducibility with previous measurements in the literature and to test out and refine experimental methods. Intensive studies of hydrogen combustion phenomena were carried out during the 1980s. Much of this effort was driven by issues related to nuclear reactor safety. The ''high-speed'' combustion phenomena of flame acceleration, deflagration-to-detonation transition, direct initiation of detonation, detonation propagation, limits of detonation in tubes and channels, transmission of detonations from confined to unconfined geometry and other related phenomena were studied using a variety of gaseous fuel-oxidant systems, including hydrogen-steam-air systems of interest in reactor safety studies. Several reviews are available which document this work [Lee, 1989; Berman, 1986]