Prediction of flammability limits of gaseous mixtures of combustible-air-nitrogen

Explosions of flammable gases were the possible major disasters occurring in industrial processes,and the flammability limits were important parameters to judge the explosion risk of flammable substances.Inerting was a common procedure in process industries to lower the likelihood of explosion by adding an inert gas to a combustible mixture.The inert gas was usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide.In this study,the calculated adiabatic flame temperatures(CAFT) were used to forecast the flammability limits of several organic flammable gases diluted with inert nitrogen,and the calculated values were compared with observed values in available literatures.It was found that the CAFT method could well describe the lower flammability limit of combustible diluted with inert nitrogen,while deviation existed between the observed and calculated values in the case of upper flammability limit,and the main reasons of the error were analyzed.