Combustion-induced rapid-phase transition (cRPT) in CH4/CO 2/O2-enriched mixtures

Explosion of oxygen-enriched fuel mixtures can exhibit severe behavior because of the rapid evaporation of the water produced by the combustion reaction. The phenomenon underlying this behavior has been recently named combustion-induced rapid-phase transition (cRPT). If the cRPT phenomenon is not invoked, the observed behavior cannot be explained by the classical theory for deflagration to detonation transition or pre-compression effects. In this work, the cRPT phenomenon was analyzed by varying either the oxygen enrichment or CO2 content in three closed vessels with different internal surface area/volume ratios. Characteristic times for condensation, radiation, and reaction have further demonstrated the opportunity to predict either the likelihood or the trend of the intensity of the observed over-adiabatic maximum pressures as functions of the surface/volume ratio. © 2012 American Chemical Society