Safety Parameters for Release Valves for Methane/ Propane Mixtures and Flammable Liquids

ABSTRACT

            The objective of the research is to obtain flammability limits, limiting oxygen concentrations, flash points, and minimum ignition energies for various materials to aid in establishing safety parameters for release valves. A flash point tester will be utilized, along with two unique pieces of equipment: a flammability chamber, and a minimum ignition energy tester (MIE). The flashpoints of flammable liquid mixtures will be recorded to develop models that will help to predict mixture flashpoints. The flammability chamber will be used to determine the flammability limits and limiting oxygen concentrations needed to ignite methane. The MIE will be used to test the minimum ignition energy of methane and propane gas mixtures. Previous research has well established minimum ignition energy values for pure substances, but there is very little research on gas mixtures. The research performed with these experiments will hopefully establish a wider based for minimum ignition energy values for gas mixtures and offer a comparison to pure values. Research is still in progress and final results have not been obtained yet.