Hydrogen cloud explosion suppression by micron-size water mist.

The primary purpose of this paper is to reveal the mechanism of suppressing hydrogen cloud explosion by micron-size water mist. On the basis of experimentally obtaining the characteristics of flame behavior and explosion pressure by changing equivalence ratio and water mist density, the physical and chemical mechanism of suppressing hydrogen cloud explosion is analyzed. The results indicated that with the increase of micron-size water mist density, the explosion-related parameters (including mean flame front speed, peak explosion pressure, peak rate of pressure rise and positive pressure impulse) of ER = 0.8 and ER = 1.0 decrease monotonously, the explosion-related parameters of ER = 2.0 increases firstly and then decreases which peak value is appeared at 26.73 g/m3. A considerable part of micron-size water mist is difficult to be completely evaporated in the reaction region, the temperature of combustion products region will be reduced due to subsequent continuous evaporation. In addition, the gasified micron-size water mist mainly interacts with H radicals through the elementary reactions of R3, R38 and R84. Due to incompletely evaporated micron-size water mist, the mist-induced turbulence is generated, which is the reason of enhancing hydrogen cloud explosion at lower micron-size water mist density of ER = 2.0. • Fine flame structure under micron-size water mist is captured. • Explosion pressure characteristics are obtained. • Physical and chemical mechanism of micron-size water mist is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]