Determining the burst pressure of vent structures with account taken of wind loads

Abstract

Introduction. In the Russian Federation, current regulations prescribe that enclosing structures of building premises, that are not explosion-safe, must have safety anti-explosive devices to ensure safe pressure inside the building (premises) and in the surrounding space. Materials and methods. One of the most important characteristics of vent structures (VS) is their burst pressure, the value of which is determined in GOST R (State Construction Standards of Russia) 56288 “Double-glazing vent window structures for buildings. Technical conditions”; it shall not exceed 0.7 kPa. However this value doesn’t take into account the influence of wind loads on VSs, and this leads to contradictions arising between producers, designers and supervisory authorities. The purpose of this article is to determine the range of burst pressure values at which VSs will be able to perform their primary function, that is, to ensure the bursting of gas, steam, and dust-air mixtures at an early stage of an explosion and provide safe pressure inside the building. Results. In this paper, calculations of principal and peak wind loads were made according to SP (Construction Regulations) 20.13330.2016 “Loads and impacts” to find out that the pressure of 0.7 kPa strongly limits the use of VSs in different wind regions. The burst pressure of translucent VSs was then identified experimentally for several structures subjected to the effects of an internal accidental explosion. The same specimens were tested for wind load resistance. It was also noted that in the process of determining the ΔPbur, the maximum allowable pressure should be considered for the selected building type. Conclusions. As a result of the studies made by the authors, the range of the burst pressure was identified.