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Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and

hydrogenemethane/air mixtures explosion in 90
degree bend pipeline
Sina Davazdah Emami a,b,*, Meisam Rajabi b, Che Rosmani Che Hassan a,
Mahar Diana A. Hamid a, Rafiziana M. Kasmani b, Mojtaba Mazangi b
a

Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 UM Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
b
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia

article info

abstract

Article history:

Nowadays, hydrogen is being utilized massively in industries as a clean fuel. Displacing of

Received 15 May 2013

hydrogen due to unique chemical and physical properties has adversely affect on pipeline

Received in revised form

network, hence increases the potential risk of explosion. This study was carried out to

27 July 2013

determine the flame propagation of hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air mixtures in

Accepted 12 August 2013

pipeline. A 90 pipeline with L/D ratio of 40 was used. Pure hydrogen/air mixture with

Available online xxx

equivalence ratio, 4 0.13, 0.17, 0.2, 0.24, 0.27 and 0.30 were used in this work. Different
composition of hydrogenemethaneeair mixtures were tested in this study i.e. 3%

Keywords:

H2 97CH4, 4%H2 96CH4, 6%H2 94CH4 and 8%H2 92CH4. All mixtures were operated at

Flame propagation

ambient condition. The results show that bending is the critical part of pipeline and higher

Flame speed

concentration of hydrogen can affect on maximum overpressure, flame speed and tem-

Overpressure

perature rise of both pure hydrogen/air and methane-hydrogen/air mixtures.

Copyright 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

1.

Introduction

Hydrogen-enrichment has been recognized as a useful pattern

to overcome problems associated to turbulent premixed
combustion of natural gas in different systems [1e7] which it
would change the fuel-air combustion behavior, namely
laminar burning velocity and flame stability dramatically [1,8].
Xiao [9] analyzed the premixed hydrogen/air flame propagation in a horizontal rectangular closed duct. The work resulted
that the flame speed decreased rapidly, inducing more turbulent combustion when the flame front develops closer to
the side walls. Cammarota et al. [1] studied the explosion

behavior of stoichiometric hydrogen-enriched methane/air

(with 10% of hydrogen molar content in the fuel) and pure
methane/air mixtures in a 5 L closed cylindrical vessel at
different initial pressures. In their study, the low hydrogen
content has negligible effect on the flame reactivity and the
deflagration index as well as the burning velocity on the
overpressure. It is also found that the burning velocity decreases with the initial pressure, yet, this effect being less
pronounced in the case of the hydrogen-enriched flame.
On the other hand, studies showed that the effect of
hydrogen substitution to methane in terms of maximum rate
of pressure rise or laminar burning velocity for any initial

* Corresponding author. Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 UM Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. Tel.: 60 166308085.
E-mail addresses: sinadavazdahemami@gmail.com, sinade1987@gmail.com (S.D. Emami).
0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 3 ) 1 e6

pressure is quite dramatic [10,11]. The addition of hydrogen to

methane gives considerably the flame stability, wide flammable regions and relatively higher burning velocity, thus a
good replacement for hydrocarbon fuels. In addition, the
hydrogen presence affects the flow field in both quantitative
and qualitative terms [11,12]. As the value of hydrogen increases in mixture, the velocity of the toroidal vortex increases [12]. However, the safe use of hydrogenemethane as
alternative fuel on the pipeline is still unclear.
The transportation of the hydrogen from manufacturing to
end users could affect the integrity or durability of the pipeline
network therefore the existing gas pipeline network are
designed, constructed and operated using natural gas. The
hydrogen would also mix with natural gas once introduced
into the pipeline. Hence, for the safe use of hydrogen fuels, it is
essential to fully characterize and quantify their explosion
behavior. The leakage and failure in the gas pipelines carrying
a massive volume and tremendous pressure of hydrogen
could also become a potential catastrophic incident leading to
severe casualty and cost [2]. The effect of obstruction, junctions and bends that normally integrated in piping design
would create issues associated with reaction location and the
flame stability [1,8].
For authors knowledge, there is sparse experimental
studies have been carried out in micro scales [9,13], particularly in 90 bend [14e17]; hence, this study was carried out
focusing on the flame propagation of hydrogen/air and
hydrogenemethane/air mixtures explosion in 90 pipelines in
order to investigate the physical and dynamic characteristics
(e.g. maximum pressure, rate of pressure rise, temperature
changes and flame speed) of these gas/air mixtures explosion.

2.

Methodology

A 90 pipeline, with 3 m long in horizontal, 1 m in vertical and

0.1 m diameter, with L/D ratio of 40 was used in this study (Fig. 1).
The pipeline is made up of a number of segments ranging from
0.5 to 1 m in length, bolted together with a gasket seal inbetween the connections and blind flanges at both ends. The
mixtures were ignited at the center of entrance point of pipeline.
The flammable mixture was initiated by an electrical spark,
which gives 16 J energies for the gas explosion tests.
The history of flame propagation along the pipeline was
recorded by an axial array of mineral insulated, exposed
junction, type K thermocouples (analogue output) which was
detected via NI CompactDAQ [18]. Flame speeds in the pipe

Fig. 1 e Scheme of pipeline.

were measured from the time of arrival of the flame at an

array of thermocouples on the vessel. The average flame
speed between two thermocouples was determined and
ascribed to the mid-point of the distance between the
thermocouples.
The pressure at various points along the length of the pipe
was recorded using piezoelectric pressure transducers (Keller
Series 11). A 14 channels transient data recorder was used to
record and process all the data via LabView (Software National
Instrument Company). Each explosion was repeated at least 3
times for accuracy and reproducibility.
Only low concentrations of hydrogen and hydrogenemethane mixtures were utilized in this study. For pure
hydrogen-air mixture, equivalence ratio of 0.13, 0.17, 0.2, 0.24,
0.27 and 0.3 were used. Different concentration of hydrogenemethaneeair mixtures were prepared in this experiment
i.e. 3%H2 97CH4, 4%H2 96CH4, 6%H2 94CH4 and 8%
H2 92CH4. Moreover, methane, hydrogen and oxygen initially
stored at different storage tank and kept at higher pressure than
mixer vessel to facilitate gas flow from tank into the mixer
vessel. Mixing cell was used for forming the methane-hydrogen/
air and hydrogen/air mixtures by considering partial pressure
method so a homogeneous composition was achieved.

3.

Result and discussion

Fig. 2 shows the pressure profiles against the distance from

ignition in 90 bend pipe. The vertical dotted line on the graph
indicates the bending position. It can be seen that the pressure
increased gradually while approaching the bending before
sharply decreased after the bend due to the flame propagation
obstructed by the closed end as well as heat losses [14]. It was
observed that with enhancement of 8% H2 v/v into methaneeair mixture, the maximum pressure obtained was 10 bars,
about 1.2 bars higher than maximum overpressure of pure
H2eair mixture, as illustrated in Fig. 2. It can be depicted that
the mass-burning rate of the flame has clear effect on pressure
rising due to the larger flame area of the spherical flame for
both mixtures. This would create more turbulence as well as
higher overpressures regarding to the faster flame speeds in
the pipe. On the basis of maximum overpressure of pure H2/air
mixtures, it can be said that the enhancement of H2 concentration into methane-hydrogen/air leads to the dramatic
increasing of maximum overpressure. The closed end pipelines also increase the pressure development at the regimes of
flame propagation because it acts same as same as obstacles.
The reactivity of explosion on methane-hydrogen/air
mixture has been studied in different vessels [1,10,11,19e22].
It was observed that by increasing the percentage of hydrogen
in mixtures, the overpressure values increased slightly. It can
be said that the additional of hydrogen content in methaneeair mixtures could increase the burning velocity and
thus, giving higher overpressure, especially at the bend area.
Even though the result obtained in this study has a good
agreement with previous works, yet, the value of overpressure
increased dramatically in 90 bend [14].
Furthermore, it seems that the addition of hydrogen into
the methane/air mixtures would speed up the reaching time
of the flame to the bending section about 5 ms, as compared

Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 3 ) 1 e6

Pressure (bar)

(a)10
3.9% H2

5.1% H2

6
6.0% H2

7.2% H2

8.1% H2

9.0% H2

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400
bend

Distance (cm)

(b)
Pressure (bar)

10
8

3%H2+97%CH4

4%H2+96% CH4

6%H2+94%CH4

8%H2+92%CH4

bend

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Distance (cm)
Fig. 2 e Pressure Vs. Distance from ignition of (a) hydrogen/air and (b) hydrogenemethane/air mixtures in 90 pipeline.

with pure hydrogen. However, it is interesting to note that the

time variance to reach the end pipe on either pure hydrogen or
methane-hydrogen is negligible (Fig. 3).
Fig. 4 illustrated the rate of pressure rise as a function of
distance from the ignition, with the reference point at the

Pressure (bar)

(a)

bend. The significant profile of dP/dt was observed on 6%

H2 94CH4, 8%H2 92CH4, 8%H2 and 9%H2. This phenomenon
is in good agreement with previous study [14] due to the
release of energy and chaotic combination of reactivity mixtures by adding more hydrogen to methaneeair mixtures. On

12
10

3.9% H2

5.1% H2

6.0% H2

7.2% H2

8.1% H2
9.0% H2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

bend

Time (ms)

Pressure (bar)

(b) 12

3%H2+97%Ch4

10

4%H2+96% CH4

6%H2+94%CH4

8%H2+92%CH4

bend

2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Time (ms)
Fig. 3 e Pressure Vs. Time profile of (a) hydrogen/air and (b) hydrogenemethane/air mixtures in 90 pipeline.
Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 3 ) 1 e6

(a)

3.9% H2

5.1% H2

6.0% H2

8.1% H2

9.0% H2

bend

7.2% H2

100
50

dP/dt

0
-50 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

-100
-150
-200
-250
-300

Distance (cm)

dP/dt

(b)
150
100
50
0
-50 0
-100
-150
-200
-250
-300

3%H2+97%Ch4

4%H2+96% CH4

8%H2+92%CH4

bend

50

100

150

200

250

6%H2+94%CH4

300

350

400

60

50
130

140

Distance (cm)
Fig. 4 e Rate of pressure rise of (a) hydrogen/air and (b) hydrogenemethane/air mixtures in 90 pipeline at different distance
from ignition.

the other hand, rate of pressure rise is experienced a sudden

decrease after the bend. This is due to flame propagation is
obstructed by the closed end, leading to the overpressure to
drop significantly. Furthermore, the explosion severity based
on pressure rise is shown in Table 1. However, it can be
depicted that the KG (deflagration index for gas explosion
severity) values obtained was increasing with the increase of
hydrogen percentage in the mixtures; although it can be
considered as weak severity. Moreover, since KG value

Table 1 e Index for gas explosion severity at bend from

ignition point.
Mixture
3%H2 97%CH4
4%H2 96%CH4
6%H2 94%CH4
8%H2 92%CH4
3.9% H2
5.1% H2
6.0% H2
7.2% H2
8.1% H2

dP/dtmax
(bar/s)

V(1/3)
(m)

KG (dP/dt)maxV(1/3)
(bar.m.s 1)

51.25
63.55
77.85
93.16
40.54
52.34
64.53
76.34
87.74

0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09

4.6.125
5.7195
7.0065
8.3844
3.6486
4.7106
5.8077
6.8706
7.8966

depends on initial condition, mixture concentration and

properties, it is lower than pure methane in Sphere Apparatus
System [23].
Flame speed profile against the distance from ignition
was shown in Fig. 5. A significant rate changes can be seen
in flame acceleration along the centerline of the pipe due to
different fuel concentration [24]. The highest flame speed is
406 m/s on 8%H2 92CH4 mixtures which is observed at the
bend, almost two times higher, as compared to the flame
speed of a very lean concentration of 3%H2 97CH4 i.e.
178 m/s. By taking maximum flame speed for pure hydrogen
as a basis, it can be seen that it is about 1.33 times increment of flame speed in additional of hydrogen into the
mixtures. This confirms the previous results of Phylaktou
et al. [12] and Zhu et al. [24]. They indicated that higher gas
concentration increase the heat released by the reaction
which it increase flame speed.
In other words, adding more hydrogen to mixtures resulted
in significantly earlier times of flame arrival to 90 pipeline
(Fig. 3), same as rig enclosure [8] and plenum chamber [25],
giving higher flame speeds for both pure hydrogen/air and
methane-hydrogen/air mixture as concluded by Hu et al. [26].
The acquiesced data showed that while the flame speed
reached to the maximum value at the bend, it declined
dramatically after the bend. The flame speed losses suffered

Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 3 ) 1 e6

(a)

3.9% H2
5.1% H2
6.0% H2
7.2% H2
8.1% H2
9.0% H2
bend

300

Sf(m/s)

250
200
150
100
50
0
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Distance (cm)

(b)
3%H2+97%CH4

400

4%H2+96% CH4

350
6%H2+94%CH4

Sf (m/s)

300
8%H2+92%CH4

250
bend

200
150
100
50
0
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Distance (cm)
Fig. 5 e Flame speed Vs. distance from ignition of (a) hydrogen/air and (b) hydrogenemethane mixtures in 90 pipeline.

at the bend are caused by both friction and momentum exchanges resulting from a change in the direction of flow.
Interestingly, the recorded maximum flame speeds in this
study are different in comparison with previous studies for
pure hydrogen in 90 bend [17,27]. This difference can be result
of different experimental rig design.

4.

Conclusion

Regarding to importance of hydrogen and hydrogenemethane

mixtures as a fuel carriers, this study was conducted to
determine the maximum pressure, rate of pressure rise, flame
speed and temperature changes of hydrogen/air and
methane-hydrogen/air mixtures in 90 bend pipeline in
ambient pressure and temperature.
The findings showed that:
1. due to intense fluctuation of flame speed and pressure, it is
observed that bending is the critical part in the pipeline.
Accordingly, the potential risk of failure in pipeline becomes more probable at this part,
2. higher concentration of hydrogen in both pure hydrogen/
air and methane-hydrogen/air mixtures can affect
dramatically on maximum overpressure and flame speed,
3. higher explosion reactivity can be seen in methanehydrogen/air mixture regarding to changes of explosion
mechanism properties of methane/air mixture.

4. the explosion severity based on pressure rise has low significant effect on lower concentration of both hydrogen/air
and methane-hydrogen/air mixtures in 90 pipeline.

Acknowledgment
This research paper would not have been possible without the
support of many people. The authors wish to express their
gratitude to all of them.

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Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056

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Please cite this article in press as: Emami SD, et al., Experimental study on premixed hydrogen/air and hydrogenemethane/air
mixtures explosion in 90 degree bend pipeline, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.ijhydene.2013.08.056