Experimental studies were performed to investigate explosion characteristics involving different obstacle geometries and quantities in a vented explosion chamber. Three different obstacle geometries were explored: square, triangular and cylindrical. The quantity of each type of obstacle within the chamber was increased from one to five. It was found that as the number of obstacles increased, the flame speeds and overpressures increased. It was also found that the triangular obstacle resulted in the highest overpressures and flame speeds, while the lowest was obtained with the circular type. For multiple obstacles, the peak overpressure was highly dependent on the obstacle type. This may be due to the presence of surface edges on the obstacle types used. It is considered that during flame interaction with the obstacles, the sharp edge creates turbulence, resulting in flame accelerated and rising pressure.
obstacle geometries, obstacle numbers, flame speed, pressure