Effects of hydrogen addition on the deflagration characteristics of hydrocarbon fuel/air mixture under a mesh aluminium alloy

摘要

Hydrogen is often added to hydrocarbon fuel to optimise the reactive properties of the fuel. Mesh aluminium alloy (MAA) has been widely used as a material for explosion isolation barriers in containers that are used to store and transport flammable and explosive liquids or gases. Due to the high reactivity of hydrogen, the effectiveness of MAA as an explosion suppression material for mixtures of air and hydrocarbon fuel gas that contain hydrogen is questionable. This article studied the deflagration characteristics of a premixed air-methane mixture that contains hydrogen, using a typical MAA as a filler. The deflagration pressure distribution and explosion suppression effect of the MAA with different hydrogen concentrations in the premixed gas was investigated. Our results indicate that with increasing hydrogen content, the explosion suppression effect of the MAA gradually weakens. The relationship between the deflagration pressure and the hydrogen content in the premixed air-hydrocarbon fuel gas with MAA as a filler was obtained using nonlinear curve fitting. When the hydrogen content reached 68.95% of the stoichiometric concentration of the premixed gas, the explosion suppression effect abruptly changed. When the concentration exceeded 68.95%, the average deflagration pressure rapidly increased from on the order of 0.01 MPa to on the order of 1 MPa. Therefore, the MAA had no explosion suppression effect in this regime, and deflagration posed a significant risk. Hence, existing MAAs should not be used as explosion suppression materials for hydrocarbon fuel gases that contain high hydrogen contents. These results provide a reference for the prevention of the explosion of premixed gases that contain hydrogen and for the optimisation of MAA performance. Copyright (C) 2016, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.