The effect of concentration gradients on deflagration-to-detonation transition in a rectangular channel with and without obstructions : a numerical study

Explosions in homogeneous reactive mixtures have been widely studied both experimentally and numerically. However, in accident scenarios, mixtures are usually inhomogeneous due to the localized nature of most fuel releases, buoyancy effects and the finite time between release and ignition. It is imperative to determine whether mixture inhomogeneity can increase the explosion hazard beyond what is known for homogeneous mixtures. The present numerical investigation aims to study flame acceleration and transition to detonation in homogeneous and inhomogeneous hydrogen-air mixtures with two different average hydrogen concentrations in a horizontal rectangular channel. A density-based solver was implemented within the OpenFOAM CFD toolbox. The Harten–Lax–van Leer–Contact (HLLC) scheme was used for accurate shock capturing. A high-resolution grid is provided by using adaptive mesh refinement, which leads to 30 grid points per half reaction length (HRL). In agreement with previous experimental results, it is found that transverse concentration gradients can either strengthen or weaken flame acceleration, depending on average hydrogen concentration and channel obstruction. Comparing experiments and simulations, the paper analyses flame speed and pressure histories, identifies locations of detonation onset, and interprets the effects of concentration gradients

Ignition of fuel–air mixtures from a hot circular cylinder

Ignition of hydrogen–air, ethylene–air and n-hexane–air mixtures from a horizontally and vertically oriented heated circular cylinder was studied experimentally in a wide range of equivalence ratio. Initial pressure and temperature were 101.3 kPa and 296 K, respectively. The cylinder with outer diameter 10 mm and heated length 10 mm was designed for high temperature uniformity. Two-color pyrometry measured the surface temperature; Time-resolved Mach–Zehnder interferometry acquired ignition dynamics, gas temperature fields and heat transfer characteristics. Ignition from the horizontal cylinder occurred at temperatures between 960 K and 1100 K for hydrogen, between 1060 K and 1110 K for ethylene, and between 1150 K and 1190 K for n-hexane. Vertical cylinder orientation increased ignition thresholds by 50–110 K for ethylene and n-hexane, whereas only little variation was observed for hydrogen. Infinite-fringe interferograms visualized the ignition dynamics and identified the most favorable ignition locations, which coincided with locations of lowest wall heat flux (largest thermal boundary layer thickness) and long residence time. Gas temperature fields were obtained by post-processing the interferograms, resolving the temporal and spatial development of thermal boundary layers and enabling local heat transfer analysis. The convective pattern around a horizontal cylinder features distinctly shallow temperature gradients, i.e., low heat flux, at the cylinder top due to thermal plume formation, which promotes ignition compared to the vertical cylinder. An analytical scaling model for ignition from hot surfaces was evaluated to determine the sensitivity of ignition threshold to heat transfer variations, and to reveal the influence of chemical mixture properties. This analysis predicts a particularly low sensitivity for hydrogen–air mixtures at temperatures near the extended second explosion limit, and a larger sensitivity of ethylene–air and n-hexane–air mixtures, which is in accordance with the experiments

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Massively Parallelized Simulation of Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition in a Konvoi-Type Pressurized Water Reactor

For the purpose of nuclear safety analysis, a reactive flow solver has been developed to determine the hazard potential of large-scale hydrogen explosions. Without using empirical transition criteria, the whole combustion process (including DDT) is computed within a single solver framework. In this paper, we present massively parallelized three-dimensional explosion simulations in a full-scale pressurized water reactor of the Konvoi type. Several generic DDT scenarios in globally lean hydrogen-air mixtures are examined to assess the importance of different input parameters. It is demonstrated that the explosion process is highly sensitive to mixture composition, ignition location and thermodynamic initial conditions. Pressure loads on the confining structure show a profoundly dynamic behavior depending on the position in the containment

Massively Parallelized Simulation of Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition in a Konvoi-Type Pressurized Water Reactor

For the purpose of nuclear safety analysis, a reactive flow solver has been developed to determine the hazard potential of large-scale hydrogen explosions. Without using empirical transition criteria, the whole combustion process (including DDT) is computed within a single solver framework. In this paper, we present massively parallelized three-dimensional explosion simulations in a full-scale pressurized water reactor of the Konvoi type. Several generic DDT scenarios in globally lean hydrogen-air mixtures are examined to assess the importance of different input parameters. It is demonstrated that the explosion process is highly sensitive to mixture composition, ignition location and thermodynamic initial conditions. Pressure loads on the confining structure show a profoundly dynamic behavior depending on the position in the containment

High-speed OH-PLIF imaging of deflagration-to-detonation transition in H_2–air mixtures

Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) is considered a standard experimental technique in combustion diagnostics. However, it has only been occasionally applied to explosion experiments with fast combustion regimes. It has been shown that single-shot OH-PLIF with high pulse energies yields clear fluorescence images of fast deflagrations and also detonations. This paper presents the first application of high-speed OH-PLIF at 20 kHz repetition rate to a deflagration-to-detonation transition experiment. Hydrogen–air mixtures at initial atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature are investigated. Satisfactory results are obtained for flame speeds up to about 500 m/s. Flame instabilities and turbulence–flame interactions are observed. Two factors limit the applicability of HS OH-PLIF toward higher flame speeds: excessive flame luminescence masking the HS OH-PLIF signal and strong absorption of laser light by the flame. The variation in OH-PLIF signal-to-background ratio across a DDT process is studied using a 1D laminar premixed flame simulation extended by spectroscopic models