Explosible Oxygen Concentration and Lower Explosion Limit of RP-3 Aviation Kerosene Vapor/O₂/N₂ Mixtures at Elevated Pressure and High temperature

Abstract

RP-3 aviation kerosene is widely used in China, and the critical explosible oxygen concentration (COC) and lower explosion limit (LEL) are important parameters concerned about aviation safety. The COC and LEL characteristics of RP-3 aviation kerosene vapor/O2/N2 mixtures at different initial temperatures and pressure were investigated experimentally. The LEL for RP-3 vapor/O2/N2 mixtures ranges from 0.5 vol% to 0.6 vol%, with the ambient pressure ranging from 40 kPa to 100 kPa, temperature from 60°C to 150°C, which is almost unchanged. The COC decreases as the temperature and pressure increase, and the COC of RP-3 vapor/O2/N2 mixtures is 9.7 vol% under the pressure of 100 kPa and 150°C. The suppression performance of N2 on the RP-3 vapor/O2/N2 mixtures was discussed, and the suppression performance model was defined in this paper, the suppression performance on COC condition is about 77%.