Citation

Hasegawa K, Sato K. Fire Safety J. 1983; 5(3-4): 265-274.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The research reported here is an experimental and theoretical study of the overpressures produced by unconfined vapour-cloud explosions (UVCE) in deflagration. Using the analogy of accidental explosions, the experiments were conducted in the open air using samples of hydrocarbons (propane, n-pentane and n-octane) in the range 0.31 - 313.0 kg by mass. The features observed in the overpressure profiles and their impulses were thoroughly studied by comparison with the results calculated from a simulation model that assumed a propagating flame that was a spherically expanding piston. This model was useful for determining the blast-wave parameters of ideal cases of UVCEs in deflagration. The behaviour of blast waves in dimensionless space was dependent on only the initial flame speed and was independent of mass, that is, it followed a kind of scaling law.