Influence of pressure, temperature and vessel volume on explosion characteristics of ethanol/air mixtures in closed spherical vessels

•Experimentally determined explosion parameters of ethanol/air mixture.•Influence of initial conditions on the explosion characteristics.•Linear correlations between the explosion pressures and the initial pressure.•Linear correlations between the rates of pressure rise and the initial pressure.

Ethanol is a biofuel that can be used as an alternative fuel or as a blending component for combustion engines. This requires more information and systematic investigation of the explosion parameters of ethanol in air under various conditions. The most frequently used pressure-related parameters for risk assessment - the maximum explosion pressures, the maximum rates of pressure rise, the severity factors and the maximum explosion delay time - are determined in two spherical vessels (volume: 0.005 m3 and 0.020 m3) for various ethanol/air mixtures (3.5-20.0 vol%) at various initial pressures (10.1-101 kPa) and temperatures (298-373 K).