Study of propane gas explosion experiment and numerical analysis of flame arrestor design for LPG ship exhaust system

Abstract

In this study, a capacity validation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is performed to predict the pressures and deflagrations acting on a flame arrestor when an explosion occurs in the exhaust system of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG ship). The validation is intended to assess whether CFD can be used to verify the performance of a flame arrestor, which is difficult to determine in a large-scale exhaust system. In addition, results of an experiment in a 3 m3 chamber with those of CFD are compared. ANSYS CFX, which is a commercial software program, is used to predict the pressure fluctuations resulting from an explosion. The explosion analysis is compared with an explosion experiment of an air–propane mixture that considers a rupture disc. Results show maximum pressure values of 0.71 s to 0.5 bar and 0.7 s to 0.5 bar are derived from the explosion test and numerical analysis, respectively. In both cases, the rupture disc is opened and the internal pressure reached the atmospheric pressure rapidly. The results of the numerical analysis are nearly identical to the experimental results, and the explosion technique used in the numerical analysis could be applied to predict explosions with greater accuracy. In addition, the development of a flame arrestor and safety devices for the exhaust systems of small- and large-scale LPG ships will reduce the time and cost required for design.