Experimental study and modeling of flame propagation in confined or semi confined areas

The context of the current study is the assessment of the occurrence of flame acceleration in accidental situations. The methodology developed for the assessment of hydrogen hazard in the nuclear industry led to the definition of a criterion for the prediction of the acceleration potential of a hydrogen/air/diluent mixture based on its properties. This study aims to extend this methodology to gaseous mixtures that can be encountered in the classical industry. Therefore, three mixtures were chosen: the first two are representatives of a natural gas/air mixture: G27 (82%CH4/18%N2) and G222 (77%CH4/23%H2). The third one is a H2/CO (50%H2/50%CO) mixture and represents the Syngas. During this work, flammability limits were measured at 300 K and two initial pressures (1 and 2 bar) for each mixture. Fundamental flame speeds and Markstein lengths were also measured at three initial temperatures (300, 330, 360 K) and 2 initial pressures (1 and 2 bar) for each mixtures. A kinetic modeling was performed based on three detailed kinetic models and allowed the calculation of the global activation energy on the basis of the kinetic model which showed the best agreement with the experimental data. The acceleration potential for each mixture in presence of obstacles has then been investigated. It was found that different criteria were to be applied depending on whether the flame is stable or not. A predicting criterion was proposed in both case. (author)