UDC 532.5

Qi Zhang and Lei Pang

ANALYSIS OF TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN METHANE/AIR MIXTURE 
EXPLOSION IN A TUNNEL

The aim of this work is to investigate temperature distribution in methane/air mixture 
explosion near a wall of a tunnel by numerical simulation. The results obtained on the 
basis of the hypothesis of an adiabatic wall are compared with those for a nonadiabatic 
wall. It is shown that the temperature near the wall in explosion of methane/air mixtures 
in tunnels changes abruptly. The hypothesis of an adiabatic wall leads to a great error 
in the calculated temperature near the wall. If heat conduction in the wall is ignored, 
the temperatures at various locations of a section are almost equal, whereas the measured 
temperatures on the vessel wall are always lower than those calculated on the basis of 
the hypothesis mentioned. However, when it is necessary to find the temperatures in the 
field outside the range near the wall, heat conduction in it can be ignored.

Keywords: methane/air mixtures, temperature of explosion, numerical simulation, adiabatic wall.

State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, 
Beijing 100081, China; email: qzhang@bit.edu.cn. Original article submitted October 3, 2011.