Assessment of threat arising by closed - volume explosions of fuel - air mixtures

The method of estimation of maximal parameters of combustion of gaseous mixtures in closed space is presented. Estimation of chemical composition of combustion products is based on simplified rules of decomposition of reactive medium. Exemplary calculations of temperature, pressure, heat of combustion of hydrocarbon/air mixtures are presented. The accuracy of presented method was validated by comparison with calculations performed by thermodynamic numerical code that include wide list of chemical substances present in combustion products. The obtained results confirm applicability of the proposed method to predict closed space combustion parameters of gaseous mixtures. Semi-empirical methods of estimation of flammability limits are briefly referred.