FLAMMABILITY
FLAMMABILITY
Flammable Limits
• A mixture of hydrocarbon gas and air cannot ignite, unless its composition
lies within a range of gas-in-air concentrations known as the flammable
range.
• The lower limit of the range, known as the "lower flammable limit", is any
hydrocarbon concentration below which there is insufficient hydrocarbon
gas to support combustion.
• The upper limit of the range, known as the "upper flammable limit", is any
hydrocarbon concentration above which air is insufficient to support
combustion.
• The flammable limits vary somewhat for different pure HC and for the gas
mixtures derived from different petroleum liquids.
• However in practice the lower and upper flammable limits of oil cargoes
carried in tankers is for general purposes taken to be 01and 10 %
hydrocarbon by volume, respectively.
• The flammable range for HC gas is between 1 – 10%, and for O2 between
11.5 - 21%.
• If 10% of CH gas is introduced in air, the proportion of oxygen reduces to
21x 90/100= 18.9% (Point D)
• When O2 is minimum (11.5%), CH gas must be at least 1.5% (Point E).
• At 1% CH gas, the oxygen must be at least 20.8% for the mixture to be
flammable (Point C).
• If the concentration of CH gas and O2 is outside the flammable range, the
mixture will not burn.
Dilution of CH Gas