VIRTUAL DESIGN OF STANDS FOR EXPERIMENTING WITH HYDROGEN EXPLOSIONS

Abstract

Hydrogen explosions can occur in industrial processes, in laboratories, in hydrogen production and storage processes, or in new combustion processes used in modern transportation. This gas presents a particularly dangerous potential due to its flammability properties. The combustion reaction of this gas mixed with air or oxygen is strongly exothermic, resulting in a rapid increase in temperatures and pressures developed. When these overpressures become too great to be supported by the vessels or enclosures where the combustion reaction takes place, the walls of the storage/transport vessels suffer ruptures, thus leading to serious accidents. Hydrogen explosions occur when three conditions are met at the same time: a sufficient concentration of hydrogen, a sufficient concentration of oxygen and an effective source of initiation of the explosive mixture (open flame, electric spark, etc.). To prevent this type of events, it is necessary to know how to handle, process and store this gas, to ensure the implementation and compliance with security protocols. This may include using explosion-proof equipment and ventilation systems and monitoring the presence of hydrogen gas in the environment. Hydrogen explosion research has been ongoing for many years and focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms behind the explosive behavior of hydrogen gas, as well as developing new strategies to prevent or mitigate hydrogen explosions. The present work supports research in this field, studying the possibilities of building stands where the explosions of air-hydrogen mixtures can be experimented in a controlled manner. The design of the stand is carried out in the virtual environment, through computer simulations of hydrogen explosions in different enclosures and interconnected spaces. The results of these simulations concern the behavior of the flame front, the maximum values of temperatures and overpressures generated by the explosions, as well as the locations where these values were recorded, at different hydrogen concentrations. The usefulness of the resulting data can be found in the a priori approach of safe construction methods of stands for conducting physical experiments on hydrogen explosions, stands that are extremely necessary in the process of researching ways to prevent phenomena of this type.