Evaluation of explosion hazards from pressurized hydrogen gas releases

氢气目前被认为是一种理想的清洁燃料，用于内燃机和燃料电池技术，这是加拿大活跃的研究领域。主要关注的是与储存和处理加压氢气相关的爆炸安全要求。加压氢气具有很高的反应性，扩散非常快，由于能量密度低，通常必须在很高的压力下压缩。以前对储罐和分配管道中的瞬时气体泄漏的爆炸危险进行表征和建模的尝试都未能识别出在加压燃料的瞬时泄漏过程中涉及冲击波作用的严重点火潜力。目前拟议的研究涉及对密闭和非密闭空间中可燃气体突然释放到空气中所涉及的爆炸现象的彻底评估、实验测试和模拟，以及通过冲击压缩和冲击增强混合释放的气体的冲击波增强点火的可能性。

Hydrogen gas is currently proposed as an ideal clean fuel for use in internal combustion engines and fuel-cell technologies, an area of active research in Canada. A principal concern is the required explosion safety associated with the storage and handling of the pressurized hydrogen gas, which is highly reactive, diffuses very fast and typically has to be compressed at very high pressures due to its low energy density. Previous attempts at characterizing and modeling the explosion hazards of transient gas releases from storage tanks and distribution lines have failed to identify serious ignition potentials involving the actions of shocks during the transient releases of the pressurized fuel. The present proposed research is concerned with the thorough evaluation, experimental testing and modeling of the explosion phenomena involved during the sudden release of combustible gases into air in confined and unconfined spaces and the potential for shock-enhanced ignition by shock compression and shock enhanced mixing of the released gases.