Effects of hydrogen addition on the explosion characteristics of n-hexane/air mixtures

Abstract To study the effects of hydrogen addition on the explosion characteristics (the explosion pressure and maximum rate of pressure rise) of n-hexane/air mixtures, experiments were performed in a cylindrical vessel at 100 kPa, 353 K, with equivalence ratios of 0.8–1.7 and hydrogen addition range from 0% to 80%. Concurrently, flame images were captured by high-speed schlieren photography to study the burning performance. The results indicate that both the explosion pressure and maximum pressure rise rate increase with the increase in hydrogen addition in terms of the lean n-hexane/hydrogen/air mixtures. With respect to the richer mixtures, however, the inverse tendency is observed. With increasing hydrogen fractions, the explosion pressure and maximum pressure rise rate decrease. The peak values of the explosion pressure and maximum pressure rise rate shift to the leaner mixture with increased hydrogen proportion. Moreover, the laminar burning velocities of n-hexane/hydrogen/air mixture were also obtained via the expanding spherical method and the pressure-time histories, respectively. Variation of laminar burning velocity with hydrogen proportion from both methods were studied as well, and the results show that the laminar burning velocity changes significantly under different hydrogen addition.