What happens to the pressure and byproducts in a contained hydrogen explosion?

  • Context: Undergrad 
  • Thread starter Thread starter honel440
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Explosion Hydrogen
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the dynamics of pressure and byproducts in a contained hydrogen explosion, specifically in a spherical container filled with a hydrogen-oxygen mixture ignited by a spark plug. Upon ignition, an immediate spike in pressure occurs, followed by a potential vacuum effect as water forms from the combustion. If the temperature exceeds 374.1°C, water remains in a vapor state despite pressure changes. The analysis concludes that no additional byproducts are produced under these conditions, emphasizing the critical temperature and pressure relationship in determining the state of water.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of combustion chemistry, particularly hydrogen-oxygen reactions.
  • Knowledge of thermodynamics, specifically critical temperature and pressure concepts.
  • Familiarity with gas laws and molar volume calculations.
  • Basic principles of phase transitions, particularly regarding water.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the properties of hydrogen and oxygen combustion, focusing on reaction products.
  • Study the critical temperature and pressure of water and its implications in thermodynamic systems.
  • Explore the ideal gas law and its application in calculating gas volumes during phase changes.
  • Investigate the effects of temperature on the state of water in high-pressure environments.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for chemists, physicists, and engineers involved in combustion research, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics, particularly those studying the behavior of gases and phase transitions in controlled environments.

honel440
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
This is an interesting thing to me, imagine a spherical container filled with a perfect hydrogen to oxygen fuel air mixture, there is an ignition source(such as a spark plug) in the container. So you light off the gasses, what happens to the pressure in the container? My resoning says obviously it spikes immediately, but then what happens, water is much more compressed than the gasses, so you've burned the hydrogen, and water is your result, because of the compression factor of the gasses into water, would it pull a vacuum on the container? and if it did, would it boil the water and keep it in a vapor state? are there any other byproducts in the container?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
My spidey senses say there will be a pressure/heat spike and then the water will stay vapourised simply because it can in the resulting low pressure environment. No other byproducts.
 
that depend upon temperature
if t>374.1 C
water will remain in vapor state. irrespective of spike in pressure
on the other hand if t< critical t
and you maintain the temperature by any hypothetical process
and p> needed for condensation at t
volume of gas=\frac{v_{g}-v}{v_{g}-v_{l}}
if 1 mole of water is present
where v_{g},v_{l},are molar vol.
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
  • · Replies 27 ·
Replies
27
Views
4K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
Replies
22
Views
4K
Replies
3
Views
4K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K