Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

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Fuel
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Full Length Article

Experimental study of overpressure and temperature field behaviors of a

methane-air mixture with different ignition positions, solid structure
obstacles and initial turbulence levels
Huadao Xing a, Yanyu Qiu b, c, *, Song Sun d, Mingyang Wang b, c, *, Bin Li a, Lifeng Xie a
a
School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu, Nanjing 210000, China
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu, Nanjing 210000, China
c
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Prevention & Mitigation of Explosion & Impact, The Army Engineering University of PLA, Jiangsu, Nanjing 210007, China
d
Research Institute of Engineering Design, PLA Rocket Force Academy, Beijing 100120, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: For gas explosion accidents occurring in buildings, the explosion characteristics may be affected by the presence
Ignition position of the equipment and furniture, and the temperature produced by the vented explosion threatens the safety of
Solid structure obstacle surrounding personal and buildings. To investigate the internal overpressure and external temperature behav­
Initial turbulence
iors, explosion venting tests of methane-air mixtures were conducted in a self-designed 4.5-m3 square chamber,
External temperature
Pressure characteristics
by changing the solid obstacles, ignition positions, and initial turbulence levels. The results showed that P1 is
generated due to the venting rate exceeding the volume growth rate of products after vent opening; with
increasing flame propagation, flame front increases and more folds are present on the surface during venting,
when the rate of combustion product exceeds the venting rate again, then P2 forms. Ignition position and ob­
stacles have little effect on P1, but affect the Helmholtz oscillation and high-frequency pressure oscillation (P4).
Front ignition leads to the longest duration of Helmholtz oscillation and central ignition results in the largest P4.
In the presence of obstacles, P4 is eliminated and strengthened in the cases of rear and front ignitions, respec­
tively. P4 decreases and then increases as a function of the number of obstacles. Front ignition leads to the lowest
temperature peak, rear and central ignition results in the same temperature peak. The length of the high-
temperature field is the shortest under four obstacles and front ignition, respectively. Under strong initial tur­
bulence, the overpressure peak, length and duration of the high-temperature field are the largest.

1. Introduction
Natural gas, which is thought to be one of the most commonly used
alternative fuels, has been widely used as a domestic/commercial
cooking fuel in China. The primary component of natural gas is methane
[1], which accounts for typically up to 99 percent of the total volume
[2]. Once any leak happens due to operator error and pipeline aging, it
will lead to serious explosion accidents. When an accidental explosion
occurs in an enclosed space, the damage level of a gas explosion is
mainly dependent upon the magnitude of the overpressure transients
and the loading duration, causing extensive damage such as in the
generation of blast waves, fragment scattering and radiant heat release,
and even coupling of the pressure prediction and the structural dynamic
response, which result in enormous damage to structural elements and
even cause a total collapse. For example, 531 gas explosion accidents
occurred within residential buildings in China in 2016: the pipeline gas
leak explosion in Kaohsiung on 31 July 2014, caused 28 people to die
and 305 people to be injured, and a similar incident caused 60–100 fires,
destroying at least 70 homes in the US on 13 September 2018 [3],
indicating that the gas explosion accidents can cause significant prop­
erty loss and human injuries.
The explosion characterisitics of methane-air mixture have been
extensively studied, for example, Mitu et al. [4,5] invesigated the
deflagration indices and maximum rates of pressure rise as a function of
initial pressure and the vessel’s size, and found that The maximum rate
of pressure rise rate has a linear relationship with the initial pressure,
and the rates of pressure rise and the deflagration indices in the spherical
vessel is larger than that of in cylindrical vessels. The propagation

* Corresponding authors at: School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu, Nanjing 210000, China.
E-mail addresses: qiuyanyu78@sina.com (Y. Qiu), wmyrf@163.com (M. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2020.119446
Received 17 August 2020; Received in revised form 6 October 2020; Accepted 6 October 2020
Available online 2 November 2020
0016-2361/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Xing et al.
indices in the presence of inert additives were investigated by Razus
et al. [6], and shown that when the initial pressure is constant, the in­
crease of additive concentration leads to the decrease of pressure peaks
and maximum rates of pressure rise in a spherical vessel. For gas ex­
plosions occurring in buildings, explosion venting is a common method
to reduce the explosive damage caused. Low-strength components
(door, windows) rupture first during the explosion, resulting in the
venting of the burned and unburned gas to reduce the internal over­
pressure in the enclosure. In general, the presence of different items of
equipment and furniture is unavoidable when indoor explosion acci­
dents occur, which will affect the flame shape and explosion charac­
teristics during explosion venting [7]. So far, much research has been
conducted involving gas explosion tests to investigate the effect of ob­
stacles on explosive characteristics, such as the obstacle shape [8–11],
obstacle distance between obstacle and ignition point [12–14], obstacle
size [15], obstacle separation distance [16,17], and blocking ratio
[18–20]. Masri et al. [11] studied three solid obstructions (circular,
triangular, and square cross-sections) in a 20-L vessel and observed the
fastest flame acceleration in the case of the obstructions with a square
cross-section and flame speed increases as the blockage ratio increases.
Yibin et al. [8] investigated the effect of solid structure obstacles on
flame development in a semi-open tube: they found that plates and triple
prisms lead to flame speed and overpressure rising rapidly, the flame
speed and overpressure first increase and then decrease with the dis­
tance between ignition distance and obstacles. Park et al. [9] found that
the triangular obstacles lead to the highest overpressure: the lowest
overpressures were observed with cylindrical obstacles. Park et al. [10]
also showed the average flame speed increases fastest with a rectangular
plate. Lv et al. [14] examined the effects of obstacle position and
equivalence ratio on the overpressure in a duct: they claimed that, by
increasing the distance between obstacle and ignition location, the
overpressure peak increases for lean hydrogen-air mixtures, but first
increases and then decreases for stoichiometric and rich mixtures [12].
Wen et al. [13] performed explosion tests using methane-air mixtures in
a square vented chamber, the effects of cross-wise positions on the ex­
plosion characteristics were investigated, and when the flame passes
through the third obstacle, the rate of flame acceleration is maximised
with the three obstacles located at the center of the chamber, the ob­
stacles installed on the side of the chamber leads to the lowest rate of
flame acceleration. Ciccarelli et al. [15] found that rapid flame accel­
eration is obtained with the ratio of the orifice plate spacing and the
orifice plate height is about five. Elsewhere researchers performed an
experimental and analytical study of the flame acceleration under
different obstacle separation distances in a vented explosion tube
finding that an obstacle separation distance of 1.75 m leads to the
maximum overpressure and flame speed [16]. Na’inna et al. [17] found
that the maximum overpressure and flame speed increases with the in­
crease of the obstacle length. Na’inna et al. [18] and Li et al. [19] also
show that both the highest overpressure and flame speed are observed at
a blockage ratio of 40%. Zhang et al. [20] studied the effects of the
blockage ratios of the obstacles on the length scale of detonation cellular
structure, and found that blocking ratio (BR) values below 0.691 have
little effect on the propagation of detonation; Under the super-critical
condition, the detonation velocity fluctuates significantly for a BR
greater than 0.9. The simulation results of Di Sarli et al. [21,22] were
conducted using large eddy simulation: they indicated that all sub-grid
scale combustion models can reproduce (in qualitative terms) the
experimental behaviors in terms of flame acceleration and deceleration
around obstacles. Bauwens et al. [23] investigated the explosion pres­
sure characteristics in a 63.7-m3 chamber with eight square obstacles,
they claimed that the presence of obstacles significantly increases the
first pressure peak and decreases the amplitude of the second peak. For
methane combustion characteristics, some scholars have conducted
extensive research [1,24-27], Cai et al. [24] presented that the effect of
Lewis number on the turbulent burning velocity. Hu et al. [25,26]
investigated the laminar flame speeds of methane at elevated
2
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
temperatures and pressures.
From the above review, we can conclude that the majority of pre­
vious work focuses on the effect of the plate obstacles on the over­
pressure and flame speed in different sized tubes; less attention is paid
on the effects of three-dimensional solid obstacles on explosion char­
acteristics and the temperature hazard outside the vent during such
vented explosions. In practical situations, many enclosures contain ob­
structions such as shelves, furniture, and so on [28]. After vent opening,
the flame and thermal radiant energy induced by the internal combus­
tion will be emitted through the vent, causing secondary combustion or
even fatal damage to personnel, as well as destruction of surrounding
buildings and the environment [29–31]. Therefore, it is necessary to
investigate the effect of solid structure obstacles on the overpressure and
external temperature characteristics during explosion venting. Besides,
the initial turbulence level and ignition position can exert significant
influences on the vented explosion characteristics, because it is difficult
to ensure in real life [32]. Some scholars have conducted much experi­
mental research: for example, Ponizy et al. [33] found that central
ignition results in the maximum internal pressure [34,35], the results of
Kasmani et al. [36] and Ferrara et al. [37] show that the overpressure
peak at the rear ignition of the tube is higher than that upon central
ignition, as the flame is accelerated in a long tube. Bauwens et al. [23]
conducted vented explosion experiments in a 63.7-m3 chamber, and
found that no one ignition position was most severe. Some researchers
also assessed the effect of the ignition position on the external over­
pressure, implying that the external explosion at rear ignition is larger
than that upon central ignition because a large amount of the unburned
gas discharged through the vent was ignited by the jet flame [34,38,39].
Scheid et al. [40] revealed that the overpressure increases with
increasing initial turbulence levels in a cylindrical chamber, due to the
small vent and low venting pressure. Bauwens et al. [41] found that
initial turbulence levels increase the initial flame speed due to the in­
crease in initial flame wrinkling and has little effect on the peak pressure
generated by the interaction between the flame and acoustic wave.
Boeck et al. [42] performed confined and vented explosion tests in an 8-
m3 enclosure, the external flame development captured using a high-
speed camera was divided into five stages: the length of external flame
decreases with the reduction in the vent area. In addition, experimental
research on the influences of initial turbulence levels and ignition po­
sition on overpressure characteristic and external flame development in
a large chamber remains sparse, especially in terms of the study of the
external temperature field during venting.
The present work aims to investigate the overpressure development
and external temperature field characteristics during vented methane-
air mixture explosions in a self-designed chamber with a volume of
4.5 m3. By changing the ignition position, obstacle volume, and initial
turbulence levels, the external flame development and temperature
under different experimental conditions were studied and the effect of
the relationship between obstacles and ignition position on the over­
pressure was analysed. The experimental data can provide the support
for a prediction model for calculating overpressure with the existence of
obstacles (furniture and equipment) during vented explosion in build­
ings, meanwhile, this result has significance and application value to
preventing personnel injury and nearby structures damage caused by the
heat radiation due to the venting of high temperature flame generated
by the internal explosion, as well it can providing a reference for safe
design of buildings or plant.
2. Experimental set-up
2.1. Facility
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the vented explosion experiment sys­
tem. The system is composed of an explosion chamber, an intake system,
an ignition system, and a data acquisition system. More details of the
chamber can be found in previous publications [43,44]. Two
H. Xing et al. Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

infrared camera (IRS 669, Shanghai Thermal Image Electromechanical

Technology Co., Ltd, China) with a frame rate of 20 fps to record the
temperature behavior outside the chamber. Pressure transducers
(defined as PT1, PT2, and PT3) were installed on the walls of the
chamber, as shown in Fig. 1 and 2. Four ignition sites were employed in
the current tests: opposite the vent (RI: rear ignition), at the center of the
chamber (CI: central ignition), near the vent (FI: front ignition), and at
the center of the sidewall (CIS: central ignition of the sidewall). The
obstacle volumes were made of the same cube measuring 0.3 m × 0.3 m
× 0.3 m and were placed on the center of the bottom of the chamber
(Fig. 3).

Fig. 1. Schematic of vented chamber, transducer (green), inlet (black), outlet
(yellow), vented plate (blue), ignition position (red), quartz window (orange).
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)
2.2. Procedure
First, the ignition rods, transducers, an explosion-proof fan, obsta­
cles, and vacuum cylindrical plastic bag (V3) were installed inside the
chamber, one end of V3 passed through the outlet and was sealed by

experimental campaigns for obstacles and initial turbulence levels were

conducted as follows: first, for obstacle-related research, the vent with
the dimensions of 0.8m × 0.8m was sealed by the vented plate with a
rupture pressure of about 6 kPa (this was made of a calcium silicate
material commonly used in the industry), and a methane concentration
of 8.5 vol% was used. Second, a 0.6 m × 0.6 m vent was sealed by plastic
film with a venting pressure of about 2 kPa with a methane concentra­
tion of 9.5 vol%. In the experiments, an intake system consists of a 40-L
methane cylindrical vessel (defined as V1), a 40-L empty cylindrical
vessel (V2), a vacuum cylindrical plastic bag (V3), and a pressure-
reducing valve. The experimental layout of the intake system is shown
in Fig. 2. The methane-air mixture was uniformly mixed by the
explosion-proof fan (BFAG-300, Yueqing Explosion-proof Electric
Appliance Co., Ltd., China), with the volume flow rates of 2200 m3/h
and the diameter of 300 mm, located inside the chamber; an ignition
system consisted of a high-frequency pulse igniter with an ignition
voltage of 220 V, and two rods spaced by 4 to 6 mm. The data acquisition
system consisted of three piezoresistive pressure transducers
(CYG1409F, Kunshan Shuangqiao Sensor Measurement and Control
Technology Co., Ltd, China), which were protected by the water-cooling
circulation system to avoid thermal effects; A fast data-acquisition sys­
tem (Donghua DH5922N, Donghua Texting Technology Co., Ltd, China)
Fig. 3. Obstacle configurations. C1 and C1: Chamber 1 and Chamber 2,
with a sampling rate of 50 kHz, a high-speed camera with a frame rate of
respectively.
1000 fps to observe the whole process of the vented explosion, and an

Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental layout. RI: rear ignition, CI: central ignition, FI: front ignition. CIS: central ignition of the sidewall.

3
H. Xing et al. Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

using the clip to prevent gas leakage during the intake process, the other and pressure behaviors under different experimental conditions. First,
end was connected to the intake pipe connected to the V2, and then the the external flame and temperature development were captured using
vent was sealed through the flange structure. Second, the methane gas the high-speed camera and infrared camera, respectively. Second, the
with a purity of 99.9% charged into V2 was obtained according to the gas pressure–time profiles were measured by the three transducers. The
state equation, corresponding to the pressrue value in V2 in each test, effects of different solid obstacles, ignition position, and initial turbu­
and then the methane stored in V2 was fully charged into V3. Third, lence levels on the temperature fields and pressure characteristics were
releasing clip at sealed end of V3 and the outlet was closed using the elucidated.
screw bolt, and then the V3 was pulled out through the inlet and the inlet
was also sealed using the the screw bolt. At last, turning on the
3.1. External flame evaluation
explosion-proof fan for three minutes to mix the methane-air mixtures in
each test, then the concentration inside the chamber was further
3.1.1. Effect of ignition position on flame development
measured using the oxygen sensor (AO2PTB-18.10, City, UK), with a
The effect of ignition position on the external flame evolution is
measuring range of 0–100 vol% and an accuracy of 0.1 vol% O2. For the
shown in Fig. 4. It is found that the ignition position has an obvious
obstacle and igniton position research, the interval time between
effect on the external flame development. In the case of rear ignition,
turning of fan and ignition is about 3 min to reach a low uniform level of
Fig. 4(a) shows that the flame development goes through the following
the internal initial turbulence; to investigate the influence of initial
three stages [45]. First, the unburned gas is expelled from the vent after
turbulence on explosion characteristics, it was very difficult to measure
the rupture of the vented plate; Second, the unburned gas discharged is
the turbulence level due to the limitation of the test conditions, to obtain
ignited by the subsequent venting of the burned gas, forming a
different initial turbulence, the most commonly used method is to
mushroom-like cloud near the vent and a long fire column far from the
change the static hysteresis time after turning off the fan [41,43]. By
vent; third, with internal flame development, the violent flame-jet
selecting three static hysteresis times (0, 1.5, and 3 min) between
outside the chamber occurs, corresponding to the high-frequency pres­
turning off the fan and ignition, corresponding to the strong, medium,
sure oscillations (P4). The flame-jet is generated by the rapid rate of
and weak turbulence in the chamber. Finally, opeinging all the in­
venting of the burned gas induced by the following reasons: the fame
struments and then the ignition system was controlled using a single-
front area increases and spreads in the direction towards the vent after
chip computer. In all the tests, the initial pressure and temperature
the vented plate failure, leading to an increase in the flame front speed;
were 100 kPa and 298 K, respectively.
the violent interaction between the flame front, reflected pressure wave
and acoustic wave generated by the venting appears, which results in an
3. Results and discussion
increased rate of combustion of the flame front in the chamber and a
greater venting rate. However, the fire column was not observed in the
Here we present the external flame evaluation, temperature field,
results of Cao et al. [34], Wang et al. [45] and Sun et al. [46]. This may

Fig. 4. Flame evaluation for various ignition positions.

4
H. Xing et al.
be due to the fact that the large size of the chamber in our work leads to
more unburned gas being discharged through the vent. In the case of
central ignition, only the mushroom-like flame close to the vent is
observed, which is an agreement with previous reports [34,42,47,48],
because the venting of unburned gas at central ignition is less than that
under rear ignition, therefore, the flame column in front of the mush­
room cloud is not observed during venting (Fig. 4(b)). When the
methane-air mixtures are front ignited, only the flame is recorded during
the venting process (Fig. 4(c)), this is can be explained thus: first, the
flame front develops opposite the vent, second, the burned gas is dis­
charged from the vent once the vented plate is ruptured [34], causing a
lot of heat to escape through the vent, which results in a low flame speed
in the chamber, and then the coupling of the flame front, and the re­
flected wave on the walls, are weakened. In addition, the longest
duration of the flame venting outside the vent occurs upon front igni­
tion, due to the methane-air mixtures mainly burning in the chamber
and allowing continuous venting of the burned gas.
3.1.2. Effect of ignition position and obstacles on the flame-jet
Fig. 5 presents the effect of ignition position and obstacles on the
external flame-jet: the obstacle has a significant influence on the in­
tensity of the flame-jet. In the case of rear and central ignition, the flame-
jet is weakened by the presence of two obstacles, especially upon rear
ignition. A possible reason for this behavior is that for the rear ignition,
the obstacles are placed in the direction of the flame front development,
hindering the spread of flames and the venting of gas, which results in
the decrease in the venting rate. In the case of front ignition, however,
the obstacles promote the formation of violent flame-jet, because the
flame spreads in the direction opposite the vent, which interacts with the
obstacles in the chamber, leading to an increase of the rate of combus­
tion in the back part of the chamber. The flame-jet behavior corresponds
to the high-frequency pressure oscillations (P4), as discussed below.
3.1.3. Effect of initial turbulence levels
To facilitate observation and analysis the effect of initial turbulence
levels on the external flame developments, by taking a methane con­
centration of 9.5 vol% and the vent measuring 0.6 m × 0.6 m sealed by
the polyethylene film as an example, the flame evolutions at different
initial turbulence levels are shown in Fig. 6. In the cases of weak and
medium turbulence, the burned gas in the chamber is discharged from
the vent at about 22 ms beyond the vent, and then ignites the unburned
gas escaped from the vent once the polyethylene film ruptures, forming
Fig. 5. Comparison of the flame-jet under three ignition positions.
5
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
a fireball near the vent. In the last stage of the venting, the flame-jet
appears, as mentioned above. Under strong initial turbulence, the
mushroom-like flame and the longest flame-jet are observed (Fig. 6(c)).
This can be explained by the findings of Sun et al. [43] wherein, under
strong turbulence, the internal flow field and the flame front are strongly
disturbed, resulting in the formation of the cellular structure and a fast
flame propagation velocity [41]. Meanwhile, the shear layer between
the burned and unburned gas, and the expansion of the burned gas
during venting lead to the appearance of the mushroom-like flame.
Under medium and weak turbulence, only the fireball is observed and
the lengths of the flame-jet are similar, indicating that, when the
standing time exceeds 1.5 min, the initial turbulence level has little ef­
fect on the external flame development under the vent sealed by poly­
ethylene film. For the weak turbulence, the bright flame was found
because the test was conducted at night (Fig. 6(a)).
3.2. Analysis of temperature characteristics
3.2.1. Effect of ignition position on the external temperature evolution
In the current experiments, the external temperature pictures ob­
tained by an infrared camera with three ignition positions are depicted
in Fig. 7. After the failure of the vented plate, rear ignition leads to the
largest high-temperature field near the vent, resulting from the venting
of large amounts of the unburned gas followed by combustion outside
the vent. Front ignition causes the minimum flame length because the
flame front develops in the direction opposite the vent during venting
and the burned gas (with the associated heat loss) is discharged from the
vent when the vented plate is opening, leading to a decreased rate of
burning and venting. Meanwhile, no flame-jet and high-frequency
pressure oscillations occur in the case of front ignition (Figs. 4(c) and
15(1)), respectively, but the duration of the high-temperature is longer
than under other ignition conditions, as discussed below. Central igni­
tion results in a longer duration of the violent high-temperature field,
since the flame front develops in a spherical shape, and the flame speed
is accelerated by the interaction between flame front, the acoustic wave
induced by the venting, the reflected wave on the walls, and the un­
burned gas remaining in the back and corner of the chamber burns to
produce a rapid venting rate.
To investigate the effect of the obstacle and ignition position on the
external temperature development. As an example, the typical infrared
images of the external temperature upon rear ignition for no, and two
obstacles are shown in Fig. 8. For the presence of the obstacles, the
H. Xing et al. Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

Fig. 6. Flame pictures under different initial turbulence levels.

Fig. 7. Images of external temperature with three ignition positions (no obstacles).

length of the high-temperature field is reduced and the fireball formed
outside the vent is slower than that without obstacles, because the
venting of the burned gas is blocked by the obstacles, as discussed in
terms of external flame-jet evolution (Fig. 5).
Fig. 9 shows the effect of the number of obstacles on the external
temperature evolution upon central ignition at the sidewall. The high-
temperature field is consistent with the breaking shape of the vented
plate in the first stage of venting. For no and six obstacles, the vented
plate ruptures at the bottom of the vent, the high-temperature field
propagates downward at an oblique angle (Fig. 9(a) and (d)). When two
or four obstacles are fixed in the chamber, the gas vent along a hori­
zontal direction due to the rupture of the vented plate being in the
horizontal direction. In addition, four and six obstacles generate the
minimum and maximum length of the high-temperature field (Fig. 9(c)
and (d)), respectively; the greater the number of obstacles, the more gas
remains in the chamber, when the number of obstacles is greater than, or
equal to four, a large amount of gas is confined and the flame front is
impeded by the obstacles in the chamber, which results in the weak

6
H. Xing et al.
Fig. 8. Images of external temperature after rear ignition for no obstacles and two obstacles.
Fig. 9. Infrared photographs with different numbers of obstacles.
interaction between the flame front and reflected wave induced by the
walls of the obstacle and the chamber, causing the reduction in the rates
of burning and venting. In the case of six obstacles, the chamber is
divided into two small chambers (defined as C1 and C2), as shown in
Fig. 3(4). The flame front interacts with obstacles earlier due to the
shorter distance between the ignition point and the obstacles, which
promotes the rapid combustion of unburned gas in the chamber and
increases the rate of venting. In addition, the burned gas far from the
vent spreads upward at the end of the high-temperature flow field due to
7
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
buoyancy effects and the slow propagation speed: however, the high-
temperature field generated by four obstacles is close to the vent due
to the reduction in the rate of venting.
Fig. 10 presents the infrared images under different initial turbulence
levels. It can be seen that, the higher the initial turbulence level, the
larger the high-temperature fireball and the longer the temperature field
outside the vent. Following vent failure, the discharged unburned gas is
ignited by the subsequently burned gas, and the burned gas in the
chamber is released from the vent, forming the high-temperature fire­
ball. In the case of the strong initial turbulence, the combustion rate in
the chamber increases as discussed before, resulting in an increased rate
of venting. The combustion rate outside the vent is enhanced by the
turbulence generated in the shear layer between the outflowing burned
gas and the air outside the chamber [49]. Therefore, under strong initial
turbulence, a significant high-temperature mushroom-like cloud is
observed, and the large fireball and maximum length of the high-
temperature field forms (Fig. 10).
3.2.2. The characteristics of temperature–time curves
Fig. 11 presents the external temperature as a function of time under
different ignition positions for no, and two obstacles, respectively. The
result indicates that rear and central ignitions result in the same
maximum temperature peak, front ignition leads to the minimum tem­
perature peak, and the duration of high-temperature increases with the
decrease of the distance between the ignition position and vent. This is
because, in the cases of rear and central ignitions, a large amount of
burned gas remaining in the chamber increases the area of the flame
front and rate of combustion during flame development, meanwhile, the
turbulence induced by the venting and the violent interaction between
the flame front and reflected wave on the walls further increase the rate
of combustion, which promotes the rapid venting of the burned gas with
a large amount of heat and result in a reduction in heat loss and the
duration of the high-temperature field during venting. The temperature
peak under front ignition is lower than that under other ignition loca­
tions, and the duration of the high-temperature field is the longest. This
H. Xing et al. Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

Fig. 10. Temperature images under three different initial turbulence levels.

Fig. 11. Temperature-time curves under three ignition positions.

may be due to the fact that, when the mixture is ignited at the front of the
chamber, the burned gas (with the associated heat flux) is first released
through the vent, no energy is available to promote the rapid spread of
the flame front opposite the vent in the chamber: meanwhile, a large
amount of unburned gas then burns in the chamber [32, 34], which
generates continuous heat release and forms the longest duration at a
high-temperature, corresponding to the longest duration of Helmholtz
oscillations (front ignition in Fig. 15), and the venting of burned gas
causes significant heat loss towards the vent due to the long distance
between the flame front and vent during venting, resulting in a low-
temperature peak outside the vent. In addition, two obstacles have
very little influence on the temperature–time histories expect under rear
ignition, due to the weak interaction between the flame front and the
obstacles: however, under rear ignition, the temperature drops imme­
diately after reaching the maximum temperature peak with the presence
of obstacles, as shown in Fig. 11(b). The obstacles placed in the direction
of flame propagation prevent the venting of the burned gas, thus leading
to the rapid reduction in the rate of venting.
The effects of the number of obstacles on the external temper­ Fig. 12. Temperature-time histories given different number of obstacles.
ature–time curves at the central ignition of the sidewall are shown in
Fig. 12. The number of obstacles has almost no effect on the maximum with four obstacles and then increases with the increase in the number of
temperature peak, because the same methane concentrations used in obstacles. The more obstacles, the more unburned gas remains in the
this work lead to the same amount of heat to be released. It can be also chamber and burns in C1, resulting in the reduction of the rate of venting
found that the duration of high-temperature peak decreases in cases and the duration of the external high-temperature field. In the presence

8
H. Xing et al.
of four obstacles, the duration of maximum temperature peak is shortest,
and the temperature declines immediately to about 1000 ◦ C when the
external temperature reaches its maximum, which is related to the
shortest length of the external temperature field and the minimum value
of P4 (Fig. 16 (C)). In the case with six obstacles, the flame front interacts
with obstacles earlier due to the shorter distance between the ignition
position and obstacles, promoting the rapid combustion of unburned gas
in the chamber and increasing the rate of venting.
Fig. 13 presents temperature–time histories under different initial
turbulence levels in 9.5 vol% methane-air mixtures. The maximum
temperature peaks are almost equal under different initial turbulence
levels. The strong turbulence results in the longer duration of the
external high-temperature and this may be due to the fact that the
combustion rate is increased by the initial turbulence in the chamber as
mentioned above, and the unburned gas remaining in the corner of the
chamber participating in the combustion [43], resulting in the contin­
uous venting of burned gas with much heat associated therewith. In
addition, under medium and weak turbulence, the temperature–time
histories are similar, indicating that the time difference between turning
off the fan and ignition which is greater than 1.5 min. has little effect on
the explosion venting characteristics, such as the pressure–time curve
(Fig. 17(a)) and temperature–time curve (Fig. 13).
3.3. Pressure characteristics
3.3.1. Effect of obstacles and ignition position on the internal pressure
The overpressures monitored at the different positions in the cham­
ber are shown in Fig. 14. It is interesting to note that the pressure–time
curves measured by the three transducers are almost overlapping in the
empty chamber. This can be attributed to the formation of the quasi-
static pressure characteristics of methane combustion in the chamber
[43,48,50]. Therefore, the overpressure-time histories measured by PT1
are demonstrated in the current tests. Due to the formation of different
high-frequency oscillations under different experimental conditions
[23,45,51,52], the raw pressure data were filtered by using the low-pass
filtering method. A cut-off frequency of 120 Hz was used to investigate
the pressure peak in the current work [44].
Fig. 15 illustrates a comparison of overpressure-time histories under
three ignition positions with a 0.64-m2 vent. It can be found that the
pressure development during explosion venting in the large chamber is
mainly divided into three stages, as shown in previous studies [43].
First, methane combustion produces high-temperature and low-density
burned gas before the vent opens, causing an increase in internal pres­
sure, once the pressure exceeds the rupture pressure of the vented plate,
Fig. 13. Temperature-time profiles under different initial turbulence levels.
9
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
Fig. 14. Overpressure-time curves measured by three transducers
without obstacles.
the gas starts to escape from the vent, resulting in the venting rate
exceeding the volume growth rate of products and a decrease in internal
pressure, therefore, P1 occurs. Second, the Helmholtz oscillation forms
after P1 due to the inertial effect of gas flow through the vent [12,49,53].
In the last stage, the flame front spreads near the wall of the chamber,
leading to the formation of the reflected pressure wave on the wall,
meanwhile, the acoustic wave is formed during the venting process, and
then the flame front interacts with the reflected pressure wave and
acoustic wave, resulting in the oscillation of the flame front, which,
when coupled with the natural frequency of the chamber, promotes the
increase of the burning rate, and the high-frequency pressure oscillation
(defined as P4) occurs [48,49,54]. In addition, Bao et al. [48] and Cooper
et al. [49] show that the presence of absorbent material on the inner
surfaces of the chamber can reduce or eliminate the high-frequency
pressure oscillations. Bauwens et al. [54] set the vibration of the
chamber walls in the numerical simulation, finding that the high-
frequency oscillations observed are in good agreement with the exper­
imental results. In the present work, the result shows that ignition po­
sition and obstacles have a significant effect on the appearance of the
high-frequency pressure oscillations, and the ignition position can also
affect the Helmholtz oscillations, as shown in Fig. 15. Central ignition
leads to the maximum amplitude of the high-frequency pressure oscil­
lations in all tests, and the high-frequency pressure oscillations are
almost not recorded upon front ignition: this may be attributed to the
weak interactions between the reflected pressure wave on the walls and
the flame front in the last stage of venting, as discussed above. In
addition, methane-air mixtures mainly burning in the chamber emit
energy so maintaining a longer duration and larger amplitude of
Helmholtz oscillations (Fig. 15(3)), which is in good agreement with
other work [44,55]. Under rear ignition, three overpressure peaks are
observed: the appearance of P1 and P3 is explained as above. P2 is
recorded because the flame propagates in the direction towards the vent
and is accelerated after the vented plate failure. As a consequence, the
increase of flame surface area with more fold causes an increase in the
volume of burned gas with a low density and rate of heat release inside
the chamber, which results in the rate of combustion product exceeding
the venting rate [32,56]. As the unburned gas remaining in the chamber
is consumed and the gas then being discharged from the vent, the in­
ternal overpressure decreases, so P2 forms.
For the appearance of the obstacles, when the methane-air mixtures
are rear-ignited, the obstacles are located in the direction of flame
propagation, the interaction between the obstacles and the flame front
results in the increase of the rate of flame front propagation downstream
H. Xing et al. Fuel 287 (2021) 119446

Fig. 15. Overpressure-time histories at PT1.

Fig. 16. Overpressure-time curves under different obstacle volumes.

10
H. Xing et al.
Fig. 17. Overpressure-time curves under different initial turbulence levels. (a) Current test, (b) Sunet al. [43]
of those obstacles near the vent as explained by the results of Li et al.
[12] and Di Sarli et al. [21]. Meanwhile, the obstacles interfere with the
combustion wave in the final stage of venting, resulting in weak inter­
action between the flame front and the reflected pressure wave on the
walls. Thus, P4 is not observed under rear ignition. As a similar conse­
quence, P4 is weakened in the case of central ignition. In addition, the
time to the onset of the high-frequency pressure oscillation at central
ignition is shorter than that without obstacles and under other ignition
positions. One possible reason for this is that, under central ignition, the
interaction between the flame front and the obstacles occurs earlier
because of the short distance between the obstacles and the ignition
point, indicating that the combustion wave reflected on the obstacle
surfaces forms the reflected wave, which interacts with the flame front
and generates the low-amplitude, high-frequency pressure oscillations
in the early stage (central ignition in Fig. 15(2)). In the case of front
ignition, the flame develops in the direction opposite the vent, the flame
is accelerated by the obstacles downstream of the obstacle(s) [12,22],
resulting in the enhanced interaction between the flame front and the
reflected pressure waves on the walls of the chamber and the obstacles,
the combustion rate of unburned gas remaining in the chamber increases
as the flame front propagates downstream of the obstacles, therefore, P4
occurs. Bauwens et al. [23] find that the addition of obstacles greatly
reduces P4, agreeing with the result found under rear ignition in the
current experiment. For the increase of P1 in the result of Bauwens et al.
[23], it may be due to the fact that the obstacles are uniformly distrib­
uted in the chamber and thus they make contact with the flame earlier,
so the turbulence induced by the interactions between the obstacle and
the flame front leads to an increase in the rate of burning before the
vented plate opens. In reality, the obstacles are not evenly distributed in
buildings, therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effect of the
different obstacles on the internal overpressure in the chamber, thus
providing guidance for the placement of furniture or facilities in build­
ings or factories.
3.3.2. Effect of the number of obstacles on the internal overpressure
In this section, the effects of the number of obstacles (obstacle vol­
umes) on the vented explosion were investigated under conditions of
central ignition at the sidewall and a 0.64-m2 vent, as shown in Fig. 16.
The number of obstacles has a significant effect on the high-frequency
pressure oscillations: P4 decreases, and then increases as the number
of obstacles increases in the current test. Four obstacles (0.108 m3) leads
to the minimum P4, the burned and unburned gas remaining in the rear
part of the chamber is restricted by the obstacles, leading to a reduction
in the rate of venting. In the case of six obstacles (0.162 m3), a large
volume of unburned gas is confined by the obstacles and burns in C1,
promoting the violent interaction between the flame front and the
11
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
reflected pressure wave therein, which leads to an increase in the
amplitude of the high-frequency pressure oscillations (P4).
Table 1 summarises the characteristic parameters of explosion
venting for different obstacles and ignition positions. It is found that
Helmholtz oscillations at a frequency of between 30 Hz and 40 Hz are
recorded beyond the vent in the present work: the Helmholtz oscillation
frequency increases with the decrease in the distance between the vent
and ignition point. This may depend on the compression characteristics
of the burned and unburned gas in the chamber. When the methane-air
mixtures are rear-ignited, the unburned gas is first discharged beyond
the vent and the rate of venting rate is increased as the flame propagated
towards the vent. The burned gas, at a low density, mainly remaining in
the chamber is more susceptible to compression when the flame moves
towards the explosion chamber due to the inertial effect discussed
above. On the contrary, upon front-ignition, the burned gas is released
after the vented plate failure and the relatively high density of the un­
burned gas in the chamber burns along the direction opposite to the
vent, making it more difficult to compress than burned gas, resulting in a
short period of oscillation, therefore, the high frequency of the Helm­
holtz oscillation occurs after front-ignition. In addition, the results of
McCann et al. [56] show that the Helmholtz oscillation is absent for
values of K (defined as K = V2/3/VA, where V is the volume of the
chamber, and VA is the area of the vent) up to 4.2; other researchers also
found the Helmholtz oscillation, for K less than 4.6, was observed in
experiments [51,57,58]. However, Guo et al. [59] presented a Helm­
holtz oscillation of an internal flame at K ≈ 11. In the present work, the
value of K is equal to 4.26, and the Helmholtz oscillation is observed in
all tests. Therefore, the presence of the Helmholtz oscillation may
depend on other factors besides K, such as obstacles and ignition loca­
tion. For example, Li et al. [12] detected that the obstacles lead to an
increase in the amplitude of Helmholtz oscillation. Schiavetti et al. [53]
find that obstacles can eliminate the Helmholtz oscillation and reduce
P4. The simulation results of Zhang et al. [60] show that the over­
pressure peaks inside the chamber increase with the number of obstacles
for a given blockage ratio of 0.7. In the present work, in the presence of
obstacles, the Helmholtz oscillation frequency decreases in cases of rear
and front ignition, respectively. This may be due to the fact the obstacles
hinder the reciprocating movement of gas in the chamber, therefore, the
obstacle and ignition position significantly affect the Helmholtz oscil­
lation and this result can provide guidance for the designers of vented
explosion systems when trying to reduce the Helmholtz oscillation in
buildings. Meanwhile, the obstacles and ignition position also affect the
appearance of high-frequency pressure oscillations in the last stage of
the venting, as discussed above. In addition, the high-frequency pressure
oscillations appear at frequencies ranging from 200 Hz and 400 Hz in the
current tests, and reduce with the increase in the number of obstacles
H. Xing et al.
Table 1
Experimental conditions.
No. Ignition position Obstacles Frequency (Hz)
Helmholtz oscillation
1 Rear 0 34
2 Center 0 40
3 Front 0 45
4 Rear 2 36
5 Center 2 40
6 Front 2 37
7 Center of sidewall 0 40
8 2 38
9 4 33
10 6 36
beyond four. This can be explained by the fact that, upon the increase in
the number of obstacles, the more influence they exert on the weak
interaction between the flame front and acoustic wave, leads to the
relatively low rate of combustion. In the case of four obstacles, it may be
due to the fact that the unburned gas remaining in the chamber is less
than that when using six obstacles, but more than when using fewer
obstacles in this work, leading to the release of part of the gas, with part
being confined in the chamber, therefore, the weak interaction between
the flame front and reflected wave induced by the obstacle and wall
surface occurs. With six obstacles, the frequency of pressure oscillation
is the smallest; this may be due to the formation of two chambers (C1 and
C2), as discussed above.
It can be also seen that, under the current experimental conditions,
the error relative to the average value of P1 (about 12.5 kPa) is less than
1.5 kPa. indicating that the ignition position and the obstacle have little
effect on P1, this may be due to the fact that P1 depends on the dynamic
characteristics of the vented plate, and the combustion rate of the
methane-air mixtures [43,50]. The rate of burning of the methane-air
mixtures is relatively low, therefore, the internal pressure rise in the
closed chamber can be regarded as quasi-static. The dynamic charac­
teristics of the vented plate are almost the same under the conditions of
methane-air combustion.
3.3.3. Effect of initial turbulence
The effect of initial turbulence on the pressure characteristics was
investigated by changing the static hysteresis time between turning off
the fan and ignition [40,41], as in our previous studies [43]. Fig. 17
shows the effect of initial turbulence on overpressure-time curves. It was
found that the higher the initial turbulence level, the greater the pres­
sure peak P1 and the shorter the time interval between P1 and P4. The
reason for this is that, an increase of the initial turbulence increases the
flame front wrinkling with a cellular structure being developed [41],
leading to an increase in the flame front speed and the rate of energy
release [43]. Then the rapid expansion rate of the combustion products
in the chamber was translated into the fast rate of pressure rise and a
higher peak pressure P1 [41,43]. However, the difference in the pressure
peaks (P1) is relatively small under the different initial turbulence levels,
which differs from the result of Sun et al. [43], as shown in Fig. 17(b).
The vent is sealed by low-strength polyethylene film with a rupture
strength of 2 kPa in this work, and by the vented plate with a rupture
pressure of about 6 kPa in the literature [43], hence the material
properties are different under dynamic loading. Meanwhile, the strong
initial turbulence leads to the maximum high-frequency pressure peak
P4 in the last stage of venting. The main reason for this is that, under
strong turbulence, the increased rate of burning results in violent
interaction between the flame front and reflected wave on the walls,
which is intensified by the D-L instability, and diffusional-thermal
instability of the flame front, resulting in a further increase in the
high-frequency pressure oscillations (P4).
12
Fuel 287 (2021) 119446
P1 (kPa) P2 (kPa) P4 (kPa)
Acoustic oscillation
385 13.5 1.9 2.4
370 12.3 – 8.9
– 12.5 – –
– 12.9 3.4 –
303 12.4 – 10.3
270 11.2 – –
270 11.8 – 11
227 12.5 – 10
286 13.0 – 1.1
208 12.4 – 5
4. Conclusion
In the present research, the explosion venting characteristics of
methane-air mixtures were carried out in a 4.5-m3 chamber. By
changing the ignition position, solid obstacles, and initial turbulence
levels, internal overpressures were measured by three pressure trans­
ducers, high-speed camera, and infrared camera were used to charac­
terise the behavior of both flame and temperature during venting in the
test. The main conclusions were obtained as follows:
1) Under the experimental conditions set in this work, the internal
overpressures indicate that ignition position and the obstacles have
little effect on P1, central ignition always leads to the maximum high-
frequency pressure oscillation peak (P4) and front ignition forms the
longest duration of Helmholtz oscillations. In the presence of ob­
stacles, high-frequency pressure oscillations appear upon front
ignition, but not under rear ignition, however, the opposite result is
obtained in the empty chamber. P4 decreases and then increases with
the number of obstacles, four obstacles lead to the minimum value of
P4. The increase in the initial turbulence causes a greater over­
pressure peak amplitude and the shorter time between the P1 and P4.
Knowledge of the overpressure characteristics is of significance in
providing some measures for the prediction of the gas explosion and
the explosion venting design after the explosion in buildings or plant,
as well as developing the models to predict overpressure.
2) Front ignition leads to the lowest peak, shortest length, and longest
duration of the external temperature field, the temperature peaks
generated upon rear and central ignition are the same. The duration
of high-temperature peak in the cases of front and central ignitions is
almost unaffected by the presence of two obstacles, but is signifi­
cantly shortened upon rear ignition. The length of the high-
temperature field decreases and then increases with the increase in
the number of obstacles. The presence of four obstacles leads to the
shortest length of the high-temperature field. The strong initial tur­
bulence produces the mushroom-like cloud near the vent and the
longer high-temperature area.
3) For external flame development, in the case of rear ignition in an
empty chamber, the mushroom-like cloud and a long fire column
appear, and the longest length of the flame-jet is observed in the last
stage of explosion venting. Only the mushroom-like flame occurs
after central ignition. Front ignitions result in a weak flame jet. Two
obstacles can weaken and strengthen the jet flame in the cases of rear
and front ignitions, respectively. Strong initial turbulence leads to
the formation of the mushroom-like temperature field. The propa­
gation directions of flame and temperature field beyond the vented
plate failure depend on the ruptured shape of the vented plate; a
mushroom-like flame occurs in cases with two and four obstacles.
These results can provide design guidelines aimed at reducing the
effect of high temperature on injury to personnel and damage to
property, and reducing secondary combustion near other buildings
by improved design of explosion-venting systems in buildings.
H. Xing et al.
Funding
This study is supported by the National Key Research and Develop­
ment Programme of China (Grant no. 2017YFC0804702).
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Huadao Xing: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation,
Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Yanyu Qiu: Inves­
tigation, Conceptualization, Resources. Song Sun: Methodology,
Investigation. Mingyang Wang: Resources, Writing - review & editing,
Supervision. Bin Li: Resources, Investigation. Lifeng Xie: Resources,
Supervision, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.fuel.2020.119446.
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