Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The effectiveness of crimped ribbon and other types of flame arrester mounted in a ducting of 30.5 cm cross-section has been compared experimentally and theoretically with that of similar arresters mounted in a narrower tube and investigated previously. The arresters were mounted in a wide duct up to 12 m long and filled with propane/air mixtures, which were ignited either near the open end or near the closed end of the ducting. The velocities of flames just able to propogate through the arresters did not depend on the diameter of the ducting, but when explosion pressures were substantially above atmospheric the performance of the arresters was substantially reduced.