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Influences of fuel concentration, fuel volume, initial temperature, and initial pressure on flame propagation and flameproof distance of methane-air deflagrations

Bingyou Jiang (School of Mining and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China AND State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), Beijing, China AND Key Laboratory of Safety and High-efficiency Coal Mining, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Zegong Liu (School of Mining and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China AND Key Laboratory of Safety and High-efficiency Coal Mining, Ministry of Education, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Shulei Shi (School of Economics and Management, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Feng Cai (School of Mining and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China AND Key Laboratory of Safety and High-efficiency Coal Mining, Ministry of Education, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Jian Liu (School of Mining and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China AND Key Laboratory of Safety and High-efficiency Coal Mining, Ministry of Education, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Mingyun Tang (School of Mining and Safety Engineering, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China AND Key Laboratory of Safety and High-efficiency Coal Mining, Ministry of Education, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan, China.)
Baiquan Lin (School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China)

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

ISSN: 0961-5539

Article publication date: 1 August 2016

310

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand a flameproof distance necessary to avoid the flame harms to underground personnel which may have great significance to the safety of underground personnel and the disaster relief of gas explosions in coal mines.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a roadway with a length of 100 m and a cross-section area of 80 mm×80 mm, the flame propagation of premixed methane-air deflagrations were simulated by using AutoReaGas software for various fuel concentrations (7, 8, 9.5, 11, and 14 percent), fuel volumes (0.0128, 0.0384, 0.064, and 0.0896 m3), initial temperatures (248, 268, 288, 308, and 328 K), and initial pressures (20, 60, 101.3, 150, and 200 kPa).

Findings

The maximum combustion rate for each point follows a changing trend of increasing and decreasing with the distance increasing from the ignition source, and it increases with the fuel volume increasing or the initial pressure increasing, and decreases with the initial temperature increasing. However, increasing the initial temperature increases the flame arrival time for each point. The flameproof distance follows a changing trend of increasing and decreasing with the fuel concentration increasing, and it linearly increases with the fuel volume increasing or the initial temperature increasing. However, the flameproof distances are all 17 m for various initial pressures.

Originality/value

Increasing initial temperature increases flame arrival time for each test point. Flameproof distance increases and then decreases with fuel concentration increasing. Increasing fuel volume or initial temperature linearly increases flameproof distance. Initial pressure has little impact on the flameproof distance.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51504008), the Natural Science Foundation of the Anhui Higher Education Institutions of China (No. KJ2015A068), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1608085QE115), the China Post doctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2015M571913), and the Bidding Projects of Key Humanities and Social Science Bases of Institutes of Higher Education in Anhui Province (No. SK2015A081). The authors thank Professor Chunhua Bai at the Beijing Institute of Technology for his help.

Citation

Jiang, B., Liu, Z., Shi, S., Cai, F., Liu, J., Tang, M. and Lin, B. (2016), "Influences of fuel concentration, fuel volume, initial temperature, and initial pressure on flame propagation and flameproof distance of methane-air deflagrations", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 1710-1728. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-04-2015-0150

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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