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之间的合作研究，该提案解决了易燃混合物意外释放（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此类事件的预测工程和数值工具，提高目前对此类超声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化行业的过程安全性做出重要贡献。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直接受益，拟议的工作解决了这种快速火焰的可能性和过渡到爆炸的挥发性混合物相关的石化工业，即甲烷，乙烷，乙烯和丙烷。研究的结构是爆轰波与多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。它有助于确定控制其形成、维持和经受滴滴涕的可能性的条件和物理机制。研究结合了实验和数值模拟。实验室规模的实验和数值模拟与国家的最先进的物理和计算模型，在拟议的研究中开发的将被用来生成相关的高速火焰与反应混合物的热化学性质的加速率的比例定律。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.