A COMPARISON BETWEEN END-VENTED AND SIDE-VENTED GAS-EXPLOSIONS IN LARGE L D VESSELS/

Current design guidelines for the venting of explosions in large lengt h to diameter ratio (L/D) vessels recommend the use of side-venting, b ut this is based on little experimental data and therefore it was the objective of the present work to provide further information and to co mpare the side-venting results to end-venting results in explosions in large L/D ratio vessels. A number of pressure peaks were identified a nd measured during the different stages of the explosion. Compared to end-venting, side-venting further away from the ignition point gave th e worst performance whereas side-venting closer to the ignition point gave a better performance. However, side-venting close to the spark on ly reduced the maximum overpressure from 609 mbar for end-venting to 4 09 mbar, and for side-venting further away from the spark the maximum overpressure increased to 686 mbar.