Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2021: 17th Conference of IBPSA

Hydrogen explosion hazards mitigation in industrial lead-acid battery rooms under different ventilation conditions

Dorota Brzezińska
Lodz University of Technology, Poland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2021.30678
Abstract: In the battery room, hydrogen is generated when lead-acid batteries are charging, and in the absence of an adequate ventilation system, an explosion hazard could be created there. This paper presents full-scale test results of hydrogen emission and dispersion phenomena, which prove that hydrogen dispersion in battery rooms is uniform in the entire room instead of its previously expected cumulation below the ceiling. This phenomenon can cause an explosive atmosphere to develop, leading to a potential huge explosive hazard. CFD model of Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) was used to show that ventilation could mitigate the explosive hazard. However, different ventilation systems do not provide equal effectiveness of the hydrogen dilution and exhaust.
Keywords: Hydrogen, battery, ventilation, CFD modelling, explosion
Pages: 3206 - 3211
Paper: