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H2020Individual fellowship2019–2021

TurbDDT · Predicting flame acceleration and deflagration to detonation transition in industrial scale explosions incorporating the turbulence effects

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2019-08-27 → 2021-08-26
EU contribution
€195,455
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF

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Results in brief

Predicting flame acceleration and deflagration to detonation transition in industrial scale explosions incorporating the turbulence effects

What is the problem/issue being addressed? The project aims to develop and validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based numerical models to facilitate the prediction of flame acceleration (FA) and Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) in industrial scale explosions incorporating the turbulence effects. Why is it important for society? Despite increasingly stringent safety measures, explosions resulting from the accidental leaks of fuels continue to occur with higher frequency and consequences especially when DDT occurs. DDT involves transition from subsonic to supersonic flows. In practice, explosions resulting from accidental releases of flammable gases; e.g. congested chemical plants, nuclear installations or just gas leak in a residential building or underground pipelines, all involve non-uniform mixtures. The complex interaction between turbulent flame, obstacles and mixture concentration gradients all affect FA and DDT. These effects cannot be captured by the current provisions for explosion resistant design and explosion safety, which are based on the energy release mechanism of high-order explosives; they are insufficient to interpret the complex nature of vapour cloud explosions (VCE) and hence their use in facility siting and explosion protection design is problematic. What are the overall objectives? The objectives include: ⁃ To gain insight about the underlying physical mechanisms affecting FA and DDT in smooth channels/tubes with uniform mixtures and mixtures with concentration gradients using direct numerical simulations (DNS) with high order numerical schemes. ⁃ To repeat the above in channels/tubes with obstacles. ⁃ To assess the capability of the more efficient large eddy simulation (LES) approaches for medium scale simulations (order of several metres) and large scales (tens to hundreds of metres) to predict global safety parameters like flame speed, overpressure and onset of DDT. ⁃ To conduct large scale FA and DDT of practical scales and assess the resulting differences in the predicted likelihood of DDT and explosion impact on structures.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Statistics show that fires and explosions are the top cause of Business Interruption loss. Despite increasingly stringent safety measures, explosions continue to occur with higher frequency and consequences especially when Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) occurs. Flame acceleration (FA) and DDT involve complex physical and chemical processes. Current provisions for explosion safety design are based on mechanisms for explosives and insufficient to interpret the complex nature of gas explosions. Their use in safety design is problematic. DNS predictions have shown the importance of TF on FA and DDT in uniform mixtures. Such influences are likely to be even more profound in mixtures with concentration gradients and when obstacles are present. There lacks experimental and numerical investigations to shade light on this. Robust and efficient predictive techniques which can capture global safety features associated with FA and DDT as well as TF are also missing. TurbDDT aims to fill these knowledge gaps. It aims to predict FA and DDT in industrial scale explosions incorporating the turbulence effects. The specific scientific objectives include: 1. To gain insight of TF on FA and DDT in smooth channels/tubes with uniform mixtures and mixtures with concentration gradients using DNS;2. To repeat the above in channels/tubes with obstacles;3. To assess the capability of the compressible linear eddy model in large eddy simulations (CLEM-LES) for medium scale simulations and compressible reactive solver (CRS) for large scales; 4. To conduct large scale FA and DDT of practical scales and assess the resulting differences in the predicted likelihood of DDT and explosion impact on structures when the more efficient CRS approach is used; and to draw conclusions and guidelines on large scale FA and DDT predictions.5. Foster a two-way transfer of knowledge between the ER and host; and6. Disseminate and communicate TurbDDT results to wider audiences.

Original text from CORDIS.

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union