Venting of runaway reactions with gas generation

Pressure relief venting of a runway reaction with gas generation is examined in terms of the overall system response and the associated venting requirement. This article presents an exact formulation as well as an approximate analytical approach. The latter is shown to be particularly useful in vent-sizing applications. Using an aqueous hydrogen peroxide decomposition example, the analytical results are demonstrated to agree well with the exact numerical results over a wide range of overpressure. In addition, the analytical result is shown to reduce to the correct limit for a pure vapor system and offers a useful vent-sizing equation for a pure-gassy system.