Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/J75326/01
Title:	THE STUDY OF FLUID INJECTION FOR MITIGATION OF GASEOUS EXPLOSIONS
Principal Investigator:	Swithenbank, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Mechanical Engineering
Organisation:	University of Sheffield
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 May 1994	Ends:	30 April 1996	Value (£):	166,990
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Combustion
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing Chemicals Food and Drink Energy
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The present proposal is concerned with improving the understanding and effectiveness of the suppression of flames propagating through a flammable gaseous mixture during a vented explosion event. This is a particular area of the more general problem of flame suppression, but is one of primary importance to safety in the process industry due to the greater potential hazard arising from the large overpressures which can develop.The use of fluid injection as a means of flame mitigation has been a subject of study for some years (eg refs 1 - 4), and the majority of work has been concerned with water spray injection over a range of conditions. Some of the conclusions to be drawn from these studies imply a) that smaller droplets are more effective (for fixed spray density) due to mass transfer rates being proportional to area, b) that hot water is also more effective, due to larger vapour pressures and ability to act as a diluent c) that location and direction of the sprays is of key importance and d) that the competing effect of turbulence generation in increasing the flame speed can sometimes dominate any mitigation effects. With the advances ofcomputational fluid dynamics, the possibility now exists of adopting a more predictive approach to the design of flame mitigation systems by using the current ability of codes to calculate spray dynamics iteratively with heat and mass transfer.The possibility of including material properties, and sub-models for evaporation and decomposition, also opens the way for an assessment of alternative materials, consistent with maximum effect and environmental soundness. The proposed study aims at incorporating such a CFD approach with an established experimental explosion facility to examine a number of the key parameters which influence mitigation.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website:	http://www.shef.ac.uk