IGNITION OF METHANE AND ITS BURNING, IN PROXIMITY OF THE SOURCE OF INITIATION

Abstract

The use of natural gas as a home heating source has, unfortunately, generated a number of gas explosion events, most of which have as their main cause the accidental leakage of combustible gas. The dynamic effects generated by the explosion pressures differ from case to case, depending on the concentrations of combustible gas accumulated in the chambers from the time of the occurrence of the gas leak to the occurrence of the source of initiation. Often, these dynamic effects involve concentrations close to the stoichiometric one, the destruction consisting of breaking windows, breaking walls and even slabs between floors. But often, events of this type are followed by fires, the dynamic effects being much reduced, in these cases the thermal effects predominate. The subject is lightly approached in the literature and, therefore, this paper presents the physical experiments performed in the laboratory and the results obtained, highlighting both the process of forming the explosive atmosphere and the mechanism of ignition of methane at concentrations far from the stoichiometric, its burning time giving the possibility to ignite the combustible materials with which the flame front comes in contact. The recordings were made through a PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) system and are useful for calibrating computational simulations and preparing technical expertise reports for this type of events.