Explosion characteristics of liquid fuels at low initial ambient pressures and temperatures

An experimental study on the explosion characteristics of diethyl ether-air, epoxypropane-air and n-pentane-air mixtures at various initial ambient pressures (57.4–101.3 kPa) and temperatures (263–293 K) was performed in a 20 L sphere explosion vessel with central ignition. The explosion pressures, maximum pressure rise rates, explosion indexes and flammability mass concentration limits of the three fuel-air mixtures were tested and analyzed. The explosion pressure of n-pentane-air mixture had the highest sensitivity to the initial ambient temperature and pressure. In terms of the maximum pressure rise rates and explosion indexes, the influences of the initial ambient pressure and temperature on the fuel-air mixtures decreased in the order of epoxypropane-air > n-pentane-air > diethyl ether-air. The epoxypropane-air mixture had the widest flammability mass concentration scale of 125–985 g·m⁻³.