Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Explosions have been carried out in mixtures of town gas and natural gas in air, in a bunker containing two partitions each with large openings. One end of the bunker contained a large opening which almost filled the bunker cross-section. The layout of the bunker was designed to simulate the conditions that might occur when explosions pass from room to room in domestic premises before explosion relief to the outside. The gas was present in the form of a layer 0.9 m (3.0 ft) thick. Pressures substantially larger were obtained than those which might have been expected if no partitions were present and if the bunker were completely filled with most explosible mixtures of gas and air. However, the enhanced explosion pressures took place over a narrow range of gas mixtures and it was important to control the composition of the gas layer accurately to obtain these high pressures.