Detailed Examination of Deformations Induced by Internal Hydrogen Explosions: Part 1 Experiments

In industry handling hydrogen, explosion presents a potential danger due to its effects on people and property. In the nuclear industry, this explosion, which is possible during severe accidents, can challenge the reactor containment and it may lead to a release of radioactive materials into the environment. The Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979 and, more recently, the Fukushima accident in Japan have highlighted the importance of this phenomenon for a safe operation of nuclear installations as well as for the accident management.
In 2013, the French Research Agency (ANR) launched the MITHYGENE project with the main aim of improving knowledge on hydrogen risk for the benefit of reactor safety. One of the topics in this project is devoted to the effect of hydrogen explosions on solid structures. In this context, CEA conducted a test program with its SSEXHY facility to build a database on deformations of simple structures following an internal hydrogen explosion. Different regimes of explosion propagation have been studied, ranging from detonation to slow deflagration. Different targets were tested, such as cylinders and plates of variable thickness and diameter. Detailed instrumentation was used to obtain data for the validation of coupled CFD models of combustion and structural dynamics.
This article details the experimental set-up and the results obtained. A companion article focuses on the comparison between these experimental results and the prediction of CFD numerical models