The Effect of Obstacle Arrays on the Combustion of Large Premixed Gas/Air Clouds

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Abstract
A series of large-scale combustion tests has been conducted in which - 4000 m3 of premixed natural gas/air and propane/air was ignited in a wedge-shaped enclosure representing a segment of a large pancake-shaped cloud. Whereas an unobstructed natural gas/air cloud produced only a few millibars overpressure when ignited by a low-energy ignition source an obstacle array consisting of six grids of horizontal pipes, representing a segment of industrial plant, accelerated the flame to a speed in excess of 100 m/s and produced an overpressure of ∼200 mbars. A number of different obstacle configurations were investigated to demonstrate the effects of changing the obstacle parameters (height, blockage and grid spacing) on the flame speed and overpressure. The results of these tests clearly show that obstacle arrays typical of those encountered in industrial plant can lead to the production of damaging overpressures.
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