Abstract Electrical control boxes are common on high vapour cloud hazard sites, and in the case of the Buncefield explosion the ignition source was inside such a box, that was sited in an emergency pump house building. There has, however, been relatively little previous research into this type of ignition mechanism and its effect on the explosion severity. Commercially available electrical control boxes measuring 600 mm high, 400 mm wide and 250 mm deep were used to explore the pressure development, venting processes and flame characteristics of stoichiometric propane/air explosions using aluminium foil and the supplied doors as vent coverings. In some tests, the boxes were empty in order to establish a baseline for the effect of the internal congestion of the boxes. In other tests a congestion array was added. It was found that, in both the empty and congested box tests, the door produced a flat petal shaped flame, which differed drastically from the mushroom flame shape and associated rolling vortex bubble venting that is traditionally observed with large orifice vented explosions.

中文翻译：

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蒸汽云爆炸潜在受限点火源的实验研究

摘要 电气控制箱在高蒸气云危险场所很常见，在邦斯菲尔德爆炸的情况下，点火源位于这样的箱内，该箱位于应急泵房大楼内。然而，之前对这种类型的点火机制及其对爆炸严重性的影响的研究相对较少。市售的电气控制箱高 600 毫米，宽 400 毫米，深 250 毫米，用于探索使用铝箔和提供的门作为通风覆盖物的化学计量丙烷/空气爆炸的压力发展、通风过程和火焰特性。在一些测试中，盒子是空的，以便为盒子内部拥塞的影响建立基线。在其他测试中，添加了拥塞数组。结果发现，