Numerical and Experimental Investigation of a Confined Diffusion Flame of Heterogeneous Mixtures

It is generally assumed, sometimes implicitly, that the exploding gas cloud is uniform and homogeneous. However, in practice, the cloud often results from an accidental release of a chemical substance into the air, leading to a non-uniform gas mixture and, therefore, gradients of concentration of pressure or temperature. These gradients correspond to distributions of the degree of reactivity and, consequently, to a greater or lesser ability to react. In addition, they influence the consequences of the explosion. This study aims to investigate the behaviour of these gradients in the case of explosions in a reactive, non-uniform and confined environment. The phenomena of diffusion, combustion, and flame propagation of heterogeneous mixtures within closed chambers are carried out through numerical simulations. Moreover, a comparative study with previously published works is developed and presented to validate our results.