29 October, 2014

Overview About The Detonation Arrestor

By Young Lindsay


The flammability of most hydrocarbons have limits when it comes to the ratio with it and air. With this concept in mind, stopping them from combusting may be possible under certain circumstances and can be controlled. This may be called as deflagration where it literally means to burn down.

The Clean Air Act of the United States have pushed industries to properly contain the combustion of gases and liquids in their factories. They need to have it controlled and ensure safety for managing these hazardous materials. With this, the invention of a detonation arrestor is made to provide for this.

Nicholas Roussakis in 1990 was able to invent these Flame Arresters or Arrestors as the initial device. Its mechanism would burn down the ignition that happened in a tank or pipe to prevent it from going further to the source, therefore, preventing it from any huge explosions and damages. Although the detonator is different from a regular flame arrester.

For the detonation, it is built in order to manage high pressures like 1,500 psi or 10 MPa and that it travels through the pipes in a supersonic speed which is about 2,500 meters per second. Generally this works by placing this device in between pipes to make a demarcation in cases of ignition on either side and to stop it from further burning. Although it still allows flow of the gas between the two sides.

This is a passive device so there are no moving parts inside it and should be working once it is installed. Inside it is composed of many layers of metallic ribbons that has crimped corrugations. This allows the travel of gas to flow but combustion to stop at certain levels.

The compression of these corrugations are studied in accordance to the Upper Explosive Limit and the Lower Explosive Limit of hydrocarbons that are usually being used. Laboratory tests have revealed composition percentages in the ratio between the air and the hydrocarbons. This finds out as to what levels would it allow to combust or not.

For LEL, the amount of hydrocarbon is increased up to the point that it starts combusting, while further increasing it until it stops, it would be recorded as its UEL. This is to know at which ratio of the air and hydrocarbons a certain gas would be able to take. This is then applied in how compressed the ridges are in the core of the arrester.

In an example with Methane gas, the LEL it has is about five percent. This means at five percent methane and ninety five for the air, it starts burning. This then stops when it reaches fifteen percent. But there are cases where the gas would still combust even with zero oxygen composition in the air.

The use of this device with its mechanism is highly important in industries where they are dealing with dangerous gases and liquids. These industries call it their vapor control system. This makes sure that the safety of everyone working and the surrounding area would be maintained.




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