Suppression of gas explosion using vacuum chamber at different break-up times of diaphragm

•Whether the diaphragm breaks up or not in time is the key point to influence the vacuum chamber suppression of gas explosion.•This study designed L-shaped pipe and firing pin used for adjusting break-up time of diaphragm.•The effect of vacuum chamber suppression under different lengths of firing pins are studied.•The correlation between break-up time of weak panel and vacuum chamber suppression of gas explosion are investigated.

Vacuum chamber is a new method to suppress the gas explosion. The explosion propagation characteristics have been studied in an L-shaped channel (tubes joined a right angle) with a vacuum chamber in the region of joining of the tubes. The vacuum chamber separated from the inner tubular space with the help of a diaphragm pierced by firing pin. The results demonstrate that the effect of explosion suppression of vacuum chamber is related to the break-up time of diaphragm and the position of the explosive flame front. When the diaphragm breaks up, the shorter the distance of flame front propagation is, the closer the flame front gets to the vacuum chamber, and the better effect of explosion suppression is, conversely, the worse the effect of explosion suppression is.