High-temperature hydrogen-air-steam detonation experiments in the BNL Small-Scale Development Apparatus
The Small-Scale Development Apparatus (SSDA) was constructed to provide a preliminary set of experimental data to characterize the effect of temperature on the ability of hydrogen-air-steam mixtures to undergo detonations and, equally important, to support design of the larger-scale High-Temperature Combustion Facility (HTCF) by providing a test bed for solution of a number of high-temperature design and operational problems. The SSDA, the central element of which is a lo-cm inside diameter, 6.1-m long tubular test vessel designed to permit detonation experiments at temperatures up to 700K, was employed to study self-sustained detonations in gaseous mixtures of hydrogen, air, and steam at temperatures between 300K and 650K at a fixed pressure of 0.1 MPa. Detonation cell size measurements provide clear evidence that the effect of hydrogen-air gas mixture temperature, in the range 300K to 650K, is to decrease cell size and, hence, to increase the sensitivity of the mixture to undergo detonations. The effect of steam content, at any given temperature, is to increase the cell size and, thereby, to decrease the sensitivity of stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixtures. The one-dimensional ZND model does a very good job at predicting the overall trends in the cell size data over the range of hydrogen-air-steam mixture compositions and temperature studied in the experiments. Experiments were conducted to measure the rate of hydrogen oxidation in the absence of ignition sources at temperatures of 500K and 650K, for hydrogen-air mixtures of 15 percent and 50 percent, and for a mixture of equimolar hydrogen-air and 30 percent steam at 650K. The rate of hydrogen oxidation was found to be significant at 650K. Reduction of hydrogen concentration by chemical reaction from 50 to 44 percent hydrogen, and from 15 to 11 percent hydrogen, were observed on a time frame of minutes.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 10150889
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-NUREG-49538; CONF-931079-28; ON: DE94011736
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 21. water reactor safety information meeting,Bethesda, MD (United States),25-27 Oct 1993; Other Information: PBD: [1993]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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