An experimental study on vapor cloud explosion of propane-oxygen stoichiometric mixture

F. Heymes (1) , L. Aprin (1) , Pierre Slangen (1) , Pierre Lauret (1) , E. Lapebie (2) , A. Osmont (2)

1 LGEI - Laboratoire de Génie de l'Environnement Industriel
2 DAM/GRAMAT - GRAMAT

Vapor cloud explosions (VCEs) are serious hazards in refining and petrochemical industries. Statistics indicate that 75% of the total losses were caused by explosion so that considerable research effort has been focused on this subject. Consequences of an explosion are aerial overpressure and impulse, responsible for injury to humans and structures. Many studies were performed with fuel-air explosions but few works focused on fuel-oxygen mixtures explosion. In this study, experiments were performed on a large experimental field. In order to represent realistic conditions, the shape of the gas envelope was elongated like the dispersion shape from leakage with small wind. The flammable cloud was ignited with SEMTEX explosive charges put at the center of the gas volume envelopes. Overpressure values were collected at different positions on the field. Flame propagation was recorded by high speed camera and gave a constant velocity of 2384 m.s-1 , indicating a detonation regime.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

F. Heymes, L. Aprin, Pierre Slangen, Pierre Lauret, E. Lapebie, et al.. An experimental study on vapor cloud explosion of propane-oxygen stoichiometric mixture. Chemical Engineering Transactions, 2016, 53, pp.61-66. ⟨10.3303/CET1653011⟩. ⟨hal-02014360⟩