Numerical analysis on propagation characteristics of methane/air explosion in elbow pipe and pipe network

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study propagation characteristics of methane explosion in the pipe network and analyze the propagation laws of methane explosion wave along the elbow pipe and pipe network. Design/methodology/approach – Numerical simulation using software package AutoReaGas, a finite-volume computational code for fluid dynamics suitable for gas explosion and blast problems, is adopted to simulate the propagation characteristics of methane explosion and the property of flow field in complex structures. Findings – Due to reflection effects of corners of elbow pipe, the peak overpressures at corner locations in the elbow pipe go about two times higher than that in the straight pipe. In the parallel pipe network, the peak overpressure increases significantly at the intersection point, while the flame speed decreases at the junction. All these indicate that pipe corners and bifurcations could substantially enhance explosion partly which can bring more severe damage at the corner area. ...