I Interesting sound-making hydrogen-burning device

  • I
  • Thread starter Thread starter Spinnor
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Device Hydrogen
AI Thread Summary
A video on the Wiki page for Hydrogen illustrates a metal enclosure filled with hydrogen gas, which, when ignited, produces sound and ultimately a bang. The flame's instability occurs as it burns above the resonant chamber's top hole, with the speed of sound in hydrogen being significantly higher than in air. As the flame pulses, it draws in air, reducing the hydrogen concentration until it falls below 75%, causing the sound frequency to decrease. When the critical air-hydrogen mixture is reached, the combustion becomes unstable, leading to an explosion. This phenomenon highlights the explosive potential of hydrogen when mixed with air under specific conditions.
Spinnor
Gold Member
Messages
2,227
Reaction score
419
There is an interesting video on the Wiki page for Hydrogen. A metal enclosure made of two funnels with a smaller hole at the top and a larger hole at the bottom is initially is filled with hydrogen gas. The covered holes are opened and the hydrogen escaping the top hole is lit. After a few seconds sound is produced. The pitch of the sound decreases and then there is a bang. Some interesting physics you might enjoy and puzzle over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:19._Експлозија_на_смеса_од_водород_и_воздух.webm
 
Physics news on Phys.org
My guess.
The flame at the top is unstable as it burns above the resonant chamber top hole.
The speed of sound in H (1310 m/s) is about four times that in air, (343 m/s), (so MW H2 ≈ 1/42 that of air ?).
Each flame pulse, draws more air in from below, reducing H concentration until below 75% H. Sound frequency falls as air enters.
When the flash-point is reached, flame can enter the resonator, and consume the remaining 2H2 + O2 from the internal air.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes Spinnor and Lnewqban
Copied from that page and linked ones:

"Explosion of a hydrogen–air mixture. The bi-conical vessel is filled with hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is ignited and starts to burn, while air enters from the bottom, making an air–hydrogen mixture that is slowly air-enriched. When the critical composition is approached, the burning becomes unstable and produces a sound wave with a decreasing frequency (due to the oscillations of the air-enriching mixture). Once the critical composition is reached, the bang is inevitable."

"Explosive combustion of hydrogen. Escaping hydrogen is ignited, while the removal of the bottom cap allows air to enter. Eventually, the air mixes with the hydrogen inside the container, causing an explosion. A similar process occurs during a backdraft, with the introduction of oxygen and mixing with unburnt gases causing abrupt or even explosive combustion."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft

"At normal atmospheric pressure [the flammability limit] is 4% to 75%, based on the volume percent of hydrogen in oxygen it is 4% to 94%, while the limits of detonability of hydrogen in air are 18.3% to 59% by volume."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_safety
 
Thread 'Question about pressure of a liquid'
I am looking at pressure in liquids and I am testing my idea. The vertical tube is 100m, the contraption is filled with water. The vertical tube is very thin(maybe 1mm^2 cross section). The area of the base is ~100m^2. Will he top half be launched in the air if suddenly it cracked?- assuming its light enough. I want to test my idea that if I had a thin long ruber tube that I lifted up, then the pressure at "red lines" will be high and that the $force = pressure * area$ would be massive...
I feel it should be solvable we just need to find a perfect pattern, and there will be a general pattern since the forces acting are based on a single function, so..... you can't actually say it is unsolvable right? Cause imaging 3 bodies actually existed somwhere in this universe then nature isn't gonna wait till we predict it! And yea I have checked in many places that tiny changes cause large changes so it becomes chaos........ but still I just can't accept that it is impossible to solve...
Back
Top