Distribution and Combustion of Hydrogen and Methane Mixtures with Air in a Container with Baffles: An Investigation

Seal failure of equipment and compressed gas cylinders containing hydrogen and combustible gasses attendant in their production processes is one of the standard emergency scenarios at infrastructure facilities of hydrogen energy. CFD program codes are being increasingly used to predict the propagation of gas clouds through ventilated enclosures and the characteristics of their combustion taking into account the cluttering of the space. Experimental data are necessary for their verification. For this purpose, demonstration experiments were performed on the BM-LR stand – a container with volume 11 m3. Data on the propagation of a mixture of hydrogen and methane with air as well as the speed of the flame front were obtained in the experiments. Even though hydrogen mixtures with content >10 vol.% are highly buoyant such mixtures are more dangerous than methane even in slow defl agration regimes (front speed ≤ 100 m/sec).