Numerical Simulation of Premixed Hydrogen-Air Combustion Behavior in a Closed Vessel

A closed vessel of 1.9 m length and 0.9 m in internal diameter is being designed and will be constructed to experimentally investigate combustion and propagation behavior of the hydrogen-air mixture. Before the experiment is performed, the benchmark and pre-analyses on the hydrogen combustion and propagation behavior in this vessel are carried out by using FLUENT CFD code. The benchmark results indicated that the peak overpressure verse time agrees well with the experimental results of published data. Furthermore, the effect factors such as the hydrogen concentrations, the ignition position, the initial temperature and the pressure were simulated. The results show that the ignition position, initial temperature and pressure have significantly influence on hydrogen behavior. In addition, the overpressure increases with the equivalent ratio and reaches the peak in the vicinity of stoichiometric ratio. However, the overpressure peak is considerably lower than the design pressure of the vessel.