• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.8-14
• /
• 2018

In the industrial chemical process involving combustible materials, reliable safety data are required for design prevention, protection and mitigation measures. The accurate combustion properties are necessary to safely treatment, transportation and handling of flammable substances. The combustion parameters necessary for process safety are lower flash point, upper flash point, fire point, lower explosion limit(LEL), upper explosion limit(UEL)and autoignition temperature(AIT) etc.. However, the combustion properties suggested in the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) are presented differently according to the literatures. In the chemical industries, tetralin which is widely used as a raw material of intermediate products, coating substances and rubber chemicals was selected. For safe handling of tetralin, the lower and flash point, the fire point, and the AIT were measured. The LEL and UEL of tetralin were calculated using the lower and upper flash point obtained in the experiment. The flash points of tetralin by using the Setaflash and Pensky-Martens closed-cup testers measured $70^{\circ}C$ and $76^{\circ}C$, respectively. The flash points of tetralin using the Tag and Cleveland open cup testers are measured $78^{\circ}C$ and $81^{\circ}C$, respectively. The AIT of the measured tetralin by the ASTM E659 apparatus was measured at $380^{\circ}C$. The LEL and UEL of tetralin measured by Setaflash closed-cup tester at $70^{\circ}C$ and $109^{\circ}C$ were calculated to be 1.02 vol% and 5.03 vol%, respectively. In this study, it was possible to predict the LEL and the UEL by using the lower and upper flash point of tetralin measured by Setasflash closed-cup tester. A new prediction method for the ignition delay time by the ignition temperature has been developed. It is possible to predict the ignition delay time at different ignition temperatures by the proposed model.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.48-60
• /
• 2016

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate flame behaviors near flammable limits for downstream-interacting SNG-air premixed flames in a counter-flow configuration. The SNG fuel consisted of a methane, a propane, and a hydrogen with volumetric ratios of 91, 6, and 3%, respectively. The most appropriate priority for some reliable reaction mechanisms examined was given to the mechanism of UC San diego via comparison of lean extinction limits attained numerically with experimental ones. Flame stability map was presented with a functional dependencies of lower and upper methane concentrations in terms of global strain rate. The results show that, at the global strain rate of $30s^{-1}$, lean extinction boundary is slanted while rich extinction one is relatively less inclined because of the dependency of such extinction boundary shapes on deficient reactant Lewis number governed by methane mainly. Further increase of global strain rate forces both extinction boundaries to be more slanted and to be shrunk, resulting in an island of extinction boundary and subsequently one flame extinction limit. Extinction mechanisms for lean and rich, symmetric and asymmetric extinction boundary were identified and discussed via heat losses and chemical interaction.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.181-189
• /
• 2017

This paper describes experimental results on combustion characteristics with hydrogen contents of synthetic natural gas (SNG) in low swirl combustor. To investigate the effect of hydrogen contents for premixed SNG flame, stability map, CH chemiluminescence images, flame spectrum analysis and emission performances were measured. In the results, as the hydrogen content was increased, the lean flammable limit was expanded and the flame length was decreased. The hydrogen contents affected the flame liftoff height, and it has different tendency according to the equivalence ratio and flame shape. The change of height and length of flame according to hydrogen contents is caused by the fast burning velocity of hydrogen, which can be confirmed by GRI 3.0 reaction mechanism in PREMIX code. The intensity of $OH^*$, $CH^*$ and $C_2^*$ was confirmed by spectrum analysis of flame. As a result, the $CH^*$ intensity was not significantly different according to hydrogen content. The increase of hydrogen contents influenced positively CO and NOx emission performances.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.29-39
• /
• 2006

The effect of parameters on the consequence of the flash fire accident by the release of heavy gas(in this study, xylene vapor) was analyzed. Simulation results showed that the distance with the lower flammable limit($X_{LFL}$) was increased with the increase of the release hole diameter. For the case of the elevated release, $X_{LFL}$ was increased with the increase of the wind speed and the release height, but $X_{LFL}$ was not affected by the wind speed for the release on the ground level. Therefore, the accident in the elevated release was more dangerous than the release on the ground level. In this condition, the release height had more effect on $X_{LFL}$ at the night time than the daytime and in the urban area than the rural area.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.3 no.2 s.7
• /
• pp.24-33
• /
• 1999

The minimum safe separation distances from LPG filling station was discussed in this work based on the accident data from 1987 to 1998 in south korea, the initial damage of accident, and standards of countries. The safety distances are adequate to reduce ignition probability by released gas and provide space for implementation of emergency response after ignition. Therefore, the distances are related to the distance to LFL(Lower Flammable Limit) and the length of jet fire to prevent accident escalation. The range of the distance was suggested in this work to make standard with considering economic, culture, and safe guards.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.31-39
• /
• 2017

Classify of explosion hazardous areas must be made at the site where flammable materials are used. This reason is that it is necessary to manage ignition sources in of explosion hazardous areas in order to reduce the risk of explosion. If such an explosion hazard area is widened, it becomes difficult to increase the number of ignition sources to be managed. The method using the virtual volume currently used is much wider than the result using CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics). Therefore, we tried to improve the current method to compare with the new method using leakage characteristics. The result is a realistic explosion hazard if the light gas is calibrated to the mass and the heavy gas is calibrated to the lower explosion limit. However, it is considered that the safety factors should be taken into account in the calculated correction formula because such a problem should be considered as a buffer for safety.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.20-25
• /
• 2009

Low explosion limits of flammable liquid mixtures can be calculated with the appropriate use of the fundamental laws of Raoult, Dalton, Le Chatelier and activity coefficient models. In this paper, Raoult's law, van Laar equation and Wilson equation are shown to be applicable for the prediction of the lower explosion limits for ethylacetate+ethanol and ethanol+toluene systems. The calculated values based on Raoult's law were found to be better than those based on van Laar and Wilson equations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2023

Hydrogen is gaining attention as a sustainable and renewable energy source, potentially replacing fossil fuels. Its high diffusivity, wide flammable range, and low ignition energy make it prone to ignition even with minimal friction, potentially leading to fire and explosion risks. Workplaces manage ignition risks by classifying areas with explosive atmospheres. However, the effective installation of a blast wall can significantly limit the spread of hydrogen, thereby enhancing workplace safety. To optimize the wall installation of this barrier, we employed the response surface methodology (RSM), considering variables such as wall distance, height, and width. We performed 17 simulations using the Box-Behnken design, conducted using FLACS software. This process yielded two objective functions: explosion likelihood near the barrier and explosion overpressure affecting the blast wall. We successfully achieved the optimal solution using multi-objective optimization for these two functions. We validated the optimal solution through verification simulations to ensure reliability, maintaining a margin of error of 5%. We anticipated that this method would efficiently determine the most effective installation of a blast wall while enhancing workplace safety.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.106-112
• /
• 1997

This study measured the ignition limits of methane-air, propane-air, ethylene-air, and hydrogen-air mixture gases by discharge spark of D.C. power resistive circuit. The used experimental device is the IEC type spark ignition test apparatus, it consists of explosion chamber and supply -exhaust system of mixture gas. Mixture gases (methane-air, propane-air, ethylene-air, and hydrogen-air) were put into explosion chamber of IEC type spark ignition test apparatus, then it was confirmed whether ignition was made by 3,200 times of discharge spark between tungsten electrode and cadmium electrode. The ignition limits were found by increasing or decreasing the value of current. For the exact experiment, the ignition sensitivity was calibrated before and after the experiment in each condition. The ignition limits were found by changing the value of concentration of each gas-air mixture in D.C. 24 [V] resistive circuit. As the result of experiment, it was found that the minimum ignition limit currents exist at the value of methane-air 8.3 [$Vol\%$], propane-air 5.25[$Vol\%$], ethylene-air 7.8 [$Vol\%$], and hydrogen-air 21[$Vol\%$] mixture gases. For each the minimum ignition concentration of gases, the relationships between voltage and minimum ignition current were found. The results are as follows. - The minimum ignition limits are decreasing in the order of methane, propane, ethylene, and hydrogen. - The value of ignition current is inversely proportional to the value of source voltage. - The minimum ignition limit currents increase sharply at more than 2 [A]. The reason is caused by overheating the electrode.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2019

The combustion properties of the flammable substance used in industrial fields include lower/upper flash point, lower/upper explosion limit, autoignition temperature(AIT), fire point, and minimum oxygen concentration(MOC) etc.. The accurate assessment of these characteristics should be made for process and worker safety. In this study, tert-amylalcohol(TAA), which is widely used as a solvent for epoxy resins, oxidizers of olefins, fuel oils and biomass, was selected. The reason is that there are few researches on the reliability of combustion characteristics compared to other flammable materials. The flash point of the TAA was measured by Setaflash, Pensky-Martens, Tag, and Cleveland testers. And the AIT of the TAA was measured by ASTM 659E. The lower/upper explosion limits of the TAA was estimated using the measured lower/upper flash points by Setaflash tester. The flash point of the TAA by using Setaflash and Pensky-Martens closed-cup testers were experimented at 19 ℃ and 21 ℃, respectively. The flash points of the TAA by Tag and Cleveland open cup testers were experimented at 28 ℃ and 34 ℃, respectively. The AIT of the TAA was experimented at 437 ℃. The LEL and UEL calculated by using lower and upper flash point of Setaflash were calculated at 1.10 vol% and 11.95 vol%, respectively.