Experimental and numerical analysis of laminar burning velocity of binary and ternary hydrocarbon/H2 mixtures

The evaluation of safety parameters for binary and ternary mixtures of hydrogen and light hydrocarbons is essential for the definition of the combustion characteristics of bio-derived fuel-gas mixtures. Furthermore, with specific reference to laminar burning velocity, there is a strong need to define simple correlations, which would allow a fast prediction of global burning velocity of the mixtures starting from molar compositions and laminar burning velocity of the pure components, in analogy with Le Chatelier's rule for flammability limits. In this paper, a preliminary experimental and numerical study is performed for the assessment of safety parameters for mixtures of methane, propane and hydrogen with air at initial ambient pressure. Explosion tests have been conducted in a reinforced 5 liters steel vessel. The PREMIX module of the CHEMKIN package, coupled to the Marinov detailed reaction scheme, has been used to compute the un-stretched laminar burning velocity. For model validation, results have been compared to experimental data. Copyright © 2012, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.