Prediction of lower explosion limit of liquid fuel aerosol

Abstract

Unlike the explosion limit of liquid fuel vapour, the explosion limit of aerosol is a function of the aerosol state. In this study, a prediction model of the lower explosion limit (LEL) of liquid fuel aerosol was established through theoretical analysis, and typical liquid fuels of n-heptane and n-hexane were used to observe the aerosol state and the lower explosion concentration limits in the experiments to verify the reliability of the established model for predicting the LEL of aerosol. The predicted LELs of the two n-heptane aerosols (D₃₂= 12.16 µm) and (D₃₂= 21.23 µm) are 3.59 and 3.62 times of that of n-heptane vapour, respectively. The relative errors for the predictive results are 5.4% and 8.8%, respectively, compared with the experimental results. The predicted LEL of n-hexane aerosol (D₃₂= 18.51 µm) is 3.5 times that of n-hexane vapour, and the relative error is 3.99% compared with the experimental results.

Keywords:

• Liquid fuel
• combustible aerosol
• LEL
• predictive model
• aerosol state

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Xueling Liu for participating in the experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research presented in this paper was supported by State Key Laboratory of Precision Blasting and Hubei Key Laboratory of Blasting Engineering, Jianghan University [grant number PBSKL2022A02].