Quantitative assessment and modeling of the propensity for fast flames and transition to detonation in methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), ethylene (C2H4) and propane (C3H8)

该提案是渥太华大学和壳牌加拿大公司的合作研究，旨在解决易燃混合物的意外释放(例如，在加工厂或运输过程中)可能导致快速火焰或爆炸的可能性。 本项目旨在通过开发能够评估这类事件的预测工程和数值工具来提高目前对这种超音速反应波的理解和预测能力。这些工具将有助于预测这些浪潮何时可能出现，并揭示可以采取的预防措施。研究结果将为提高石油化工行业的工艺安全水平做出重要贡献。加拿大拥有庞大的化学工业和密集的管道网络，将在工艺安全设计和性能方面获得直接好处。 拟议的工作解决了在与石化行业相关的挥发性混合物中，即甲烷、乙烷、乙烯和丙烷中发生如此快速火焰和过渡到爆轰的可能性。 所研究的构型是爆震波与穿孔板相互作用后获得的高速爆燃。如前所述，这种独特的设置允许在实验室中隔离这些快速反应波。它可以确定控制其建立、维持和可能遭受滴滴涕的条件和物理机制。 研究采用实验和数值模拟相结合的方法。实验室规模的实验和数值模拟将被用来产生高速火焰的加速速率与反应混合物的热化学性质之间的标度律。拟议的研究还将有助于培训两名博士后研究员和三名研究生。

The proposal is collaborative research between the University of Ottawa and Shell Canada, which addresses the likely hood that an accidental release of a flammable mixture (for example, in a processing plant or during transport) may lead to a fast flame or detonation. The present project aims to improve the current understanding and predictive capabilities of such supersonic reaction waves with the development of predictive engineering and numerical tools capable of assessing such events. These tools will help anticipate when these waves can arise and reveal measures that could be taken to prevent them. The results will provide a significant contribution to the improvement of process safety in the petrochemical industry. Canada, with its large chemical industry and dense pipeline network, will derive direct benefit in process safety design and performance. The proposed work addresses the likelihood for such fast flames and transition to detonation in volatile mixtures relevant to the petrochemical industry, namely methane, ethane, ethylene, and propane. The configuration studied is the high speed deflagrations obtained after the interaction of a detonation wave with a perforated plate. As shown previously, this unique set-up allows isolation of these fast reaction waves in the laboratory. It allows determination of the conditions and physical mechanisms controlling their establishment, sustenance and potential to undergo DDT. The investigation combines experiments and numerical modeling. Lab-scale experiments and numerical simulations performed with state-of-the-art physical and computational models developed in the proposed research will be used to generate scaling laws relating the acceleration rates of high speed flames with the thermo-chemical properties of the reactive mixtures. The proposed research will also contribute towards the training of two postdoctoral fellows and three graduate students.