Flame propagation through a channel equipped with obstacles was studied experimentally. Two types of obstacle geometries were investigated, i.e., wall-mounted cross-flow cylinders and fence-type obstacles mounted on the top and bottom channel surfaces. The motivation for this research is its applications to both high-speed propulsion and industrial explosion safety. The effect of obstacle distribution and blockage ratio on flame acceleration was investigated in a 2.54cm x 7.6cm “narrow” channel with wall-mounted cross-flow cylindrical obstacles. The cylinders were arranged in a “staggered” or “inline” pattern, with blockage ratios of 0.5 and 0.67. Schlieren images were used to study the flame shape and its leading edge velocity for a range of fuel-air mixtures compositions. It was determined that initial flame propagation occurs faster in higher blockage ratios due to the higher frequency perturbation to the flow. Flame acceleration led to different quasi-steady flame and detonation propagation regimes. In general, higher final steady flame velocities were reached in the lower blockage ratios, and detonation limits were found to be influenced by the geometry. The influence of channel width on flame acceleration was also determined using fence-type obstacles with a single blockage ratio. Experiments were performed in a 2.54cm x 7.6cm and 7.6cm x 7.6cm channel. Schlieren images were again used to study the flame shape and to obtain leading edge velocity. The flame tip was found to have a parabolic profile across the channel width for the narrower channel and flatter profile in the wider channel. It was determined that the channel width has a weak effect on the flame velocity down the channel length. As such, flame acceleration was initially only slightly more pronounced in the narrow channel before the reverse became true later in the wide channel. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-07-18 21:13:40.436

Mining, process and energy industries suffer from billions of dollars of worldwide losses every year due to Vapour Cloud Explosions (VCE). Moreover, explosion accidents are often tragic and lead to a high number of severe injuries and fatalities. The VCE scenario is complex and controlled by various mechanisms. The interplay among them is still not entirely understood. Understanding all these intricate processes is of vital importance and requires detailed experimental diagnostics. Coupling accurate numerical simulations to well documented experiments can allow an elaborate description of these phenomena. This thesis focuses on explosions occurring on configurations that are either semi-confined or confined. In such configurations, the explosion is generally initiated by a mild ignition and a subsonic flame front emerges from the ignition source. An important feature of self-propagating flames lies in their intrinsically unstable nature. When they propagate in an environment with high levels of confinement and congestion, which is the case in most industrial sites, a Flame Acceleration (FA) process is often observed that can give rise to very fast flames, known for their destructive potential. In some cases, the FA process can create the appropriate conditions for the initiation of detonations, which corresponds to a rapid escalation of the explosion hazard. To reproduce the confinement and congestion conditions that one can find in industrial sites, the university of Munich TUM equipped a confined chamber with a series of obstacles and analysed the influence of repeated obstructions on the propagation of hydrogen/air deflagrations. This experimental study showed a strong influence of the mixture composition on the acceleration process. A Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) has also been observed for a certain range of equivalence ratio. This configuration is therefore ideal to study the mechanisms of flame acceleration as well as the intricate DDT process. A numerical study of both scenarios is performed in this thesis: -First for a lean premixed hydrogen/air mixture, a strong flame acceleration is observed experimentally without DDT. The characteristic features of the explosion are well reproduced numerically using a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. The crucial importance of confinement and repeated flame-obstacle interactions in producing very fast deflagrations is highlighted. -DDT is observed experimentally for a stoichiometric hydrogen/air mixture. This thesis focuses on the instants surrounding the DDT event, using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). Particular attention is drawn to the impact of the chemistry modelling on the detonation scenario. The failure of preventive measures is often observed in many explosion accidents. To avoid a rapid escalation of the explosion scenario, mitigative procedures must be triggered when a gas leak or an ignition is detected. Metal salts (like potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate) have received considerable attention recently because well-controlled experiments showed their high efficiency in inhibiting fires. The last part of the thesis focused on the mechanism of flame inhibition by sodium bicarbonate particles. First, criteria based on the particle sizes are established to characterize the inhibition efficiency of the particles. Second, two dimensional numerical simulations of a planar flame propagating in a stratified layer of very fine sodium bicarbonate particles showed that under certain conditions these powders can act as combustion enhancers. These results echo a number of experimental observations on the possible counter-effects of the inhibitors.

The present thesis considers several important problems of combustion theory, which are closely related to each other: turbulent burning, flame interaction with walls in different geometries, flame acceleration and detonation triggering. The theory of turbulent burning is developed within the renormalization approach. The theory takes into account realistic thermal expansion of burning matter. Unlike previous renormalization models of turbulent burning, the theory includes flame interaction with vortices aligned both perpendicular and parallel to average direction of flame propagation. The perpendicular vortices distort a flame front due to kinematical drift; the parallel vortices modify the flame shape because of the centrifugal force. A corrugated flame front consumes more fuel mixture per unit of time and propagates much faster. The Darrieus-Landau instability is also included in the theory. The instability becomes especially important when the characteristic length scale of the flow is large. Flame interaction with non-slip walls is another large-scale effect, which influences the flame shape and the turbulent burning rate. This interaction is investigated in the thesis in different geometries of tubes with open / closed ends. When the tube ends are open, then flame interaction with non-slip walls leads to an oscillating regime of burning. Flame oscillations are investigated for different flame parameters and tube widths. The average increase in the burning rate in the oscillations is found. Then, propagating from a closed tube end, a flame accelerates according to the Shelkin mechanism. In the theses, an analytical theory of laminar flame acceleration is developed. The theory predicts the acceleration rate, the flame shape and the velocity profile in the flow pushed by the flame. The theory is validated by extensive numerical simulations. An alternative mechanism of flame acceleration is also considered, which is possible at the initial stages of burning in tubes. The mechanism is investigated using the analytical theory and direct numerical simulations. The analytical and numerical results are in very good agreement with previous experiments on “tulip” flames. The analytical theory of explosion triggering by an accelerating flame is developed. The theory describes heating of the fuel mixture by a compression wave pushed by an accelerating flame. As a result, the fuel mixture may explode ahead of the flame front. The explosion time is calculated. The theory shows good agreement with previous numerical simulations on deflagration-to-detonation transition in laminar flows. Flame interaction with sound waves is studied in the geometry of a flame propagating to a closed tube end. It is demonstrated numerically that intrinsic flame oscillations coming into resonance with acoustic waves may lead to violent folding of the flame front with a drastic increase in the burning rate. The flame folding is related to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability developing at the flame front in the oscillating acceleration field of the acoustic wave.

Modern industrial society is based on combustion with ever increasing standards on the efficiency of burning. One of the main combustion characteristics is the burning rate, which is influenced by intrinsic flame instabilities, external turbulence and flame interaction with walls of combustor and sound waves. In the present work we started with the problem how to include combustion along the vortex axis into the general theory of turbulent burning. We demonstrated that the most representative geometry for such problem is a hypothetic “tube” with rotating gaseous mixture. We obtained that burning in a vortex is similar to the bubble motion in an effective acceleration field created by the centrifugal force. If the intensity of the vortex is rather high then the flame speed is determined mostly by the velocity of the bubble. The results obtained complement the renormalization theory of turbulent burning. Using the results on flame propagation along a vortex we calculated the turbulent flame velocity, compared it to the experiments and found rather good agreement. All experiments on turbulent combustion in tubes inevitably involve flame interaction with walls. In the present thesis flame propagation in the geometry of a tube with nonslip walls has been widely studied numerically and analytically. We obtained that in the case of an open tube flame interaction with nonslip walls leads to the oscillating regime of burning. The oscillations are accompanied by variations of the curved flame shape and the velocity of flame propagation. If flame propagates from the closed tube end, then the flame front accelerates with no limit until the detonation is triggered. The above results make a good advance in solving one of the most difficult problems of combustion theory, the problem of deflagration to detonation transition. We developed the analytical theory of accelerating flames and found good agreement with results of direct numerical simulations. Also we performed analytical and numerical studies of another mechanism of flame acceleration caused by initial conditions. The flame ignited at the axis of a tube acquires a “finger” shape and accelerates. Still, such acceleration takes place for a rather short time until the flame reaches the tube wall. In the case of flame propagating from the open tube end to the closed one the flame front oscillates and therefore generates acoustic waves. The acoustic waves reflected from the closed end distort the flame surface. When the frequency of acoustic mode between the flame front and the tube end comes in resonance with intrinsic flame oscillations the burning rate increases considerably and the flame front becomes violently corrugated.

A Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) is a propulsion device that takes advantage of the pressure rise inherent to the efficient burning of fuel-air mixtures via detonations. Detonation initiation is a critical process that occurs in the cycle of a PDE. A practical method of detonation initiation is Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT), which describes the transition of a subsonic deflagration, created using low initiation energies, to a supersonic detonation. This thesis presents the effects of obstacle spacing, blockage ratio, DDT section length, and airflow on DDT behavior in hydrogen-air and ethylene-air mixtures for a repeating PDE. These experiments were performed on a 2 diameter, 40 long, continuous-flow PDE located at the General Electric Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York. A fundamental study of experiments performed on a modular orifice plate DDT geometry revealed that all three factors tested (obstacle blockage ratio, length of DDT section, and spacing between obstacles) have a statistically significant effect on flame acceleration. All of the interactions between the factors, except for the interaction of the blockage ratio with the spacing between obstacles, were also significant. To better capture the non-linearity of the DDT process, further studies were performed using a clear detonation chamber and a high-speed digital camera to track the flame chemiluminescence as it progressed through the PDE. Results show that the presence of excess obstacles, past what is minimally required to transition the flame to detonation, hinders the length and time to transition to detonation. Other key findings show that increasing the mass flow-rate of air through the PDE significantly reduces the run-up time of DDT, while having minimal effect on run-up distance. These experimental results provided validation runs for computational studies. In some cases as little as 20% difference was seen. The minimum DDT length for 0.15 lb/s hydrogen-air studies was 8 L/D from the spark location, while for ethylene it was 16 L/D. It was also observed that increasing the airflow rate through the tube from 0.1 to 0.3 lbs/sec decreased the time required for DDT by 26%, from 3.9 ms to 2.9 ms.

Detonation is a high energetic mode of pressure gain combustion that exploits total pressure rise to augment high flow momentum and thermodynamic cycle efficiencies. Detonation is initiated through the Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT). This process occurs when a deflagrated flame is accelerated through turbulence induction, producing shock-flame interactions that generate violent explosions and a supersonic detonation wave. There is a broad desire to unravel the physical mechanisms of turbulence induced DDT. For the implementation of efficient detonation methods in propulsion and energy applications, it is crucial to understand optimum turbulence conditions for detonation initiation. The study examines the role of turbulence-flame interactions on flame acceleration using a fluidic jet to generate turbulence within the reactant flow field. The investigation aims to classify the turbulent flame dynamics and temporal evolution of the flame stages throughout the turbulent flame regimes. The flame-flow interactions are experimentally studied using a detonation facility and high-speed imaging techniques, including Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Schlieren flow visualization. Flow field measurements enable local turbulence characterization and analysis of flame acceleration mechanisms that result from the jet's high level of turbulent transport. The influence of initial flame turbulence on the turbulent interaction is revealed, resulting in higher turbulence generation and overall flame acceleration. Turbulent intensities are classified, revealing a dynamic fluctuation of flame structure between the thin reaction zone and the broken reaction regime throughout the interaction.

Les incidents d'explosions intervenant sur les sites industriels sont souvent accompagnés de dégâts matériels et humains importants. Les dégâts varient d’une explosion à une autre, suggérant l’existence de mécanismes capables d’aggraver le scénario d’explosion. Réduire les risques d'explosion nécessite une compréhension fine des différents mécanismes mis en jeu. Avec l’augmentation considérable de la puissance de calcul, la simulation numérique est devenu une approche incontournable pour l’étude et la compréhension de ces scénarios. Cette thèse se focalise sur les explosions de gaz initiées par un noyau de flamme subsonique. Lorsque la flamme se propage dans un environnement offrant un haut niveau de confinement et d’obstruction, ce qui est souvent le cas des sites industriels, une forte accélération de la flamme est généralement observée, accompagnée d’une augmentation de la pression. Dans certains cas, l’accélération de la flamme peut conduire à l’initiation d’une onde de détonation. Ce scénario coïncide avec une augmentation brutale de la surpression et donc une aggravation des dégâts observés. Pour reproduire des conditions de confinement et d’obstruction représentatives des sites industriels, l’université de Munich TUM a équipé une chambre confinée de 5.4m de long d’une série d’obstacles et analysé l’impact de ces obstructions sur la propagation de déflagrations hydrogène/air. Cette étude expérimentale a montré une forte influence de la richesse du mélange sur l’accélération de la flamme. Une transition à la détonation est notamment observée pour une certaine gamme de richesse. Cette configuration est donc idéale pour étudier les mécanismes d’accélération de flamme ainsi que les conditions qui peuvent mener à l’initiation de détonations. Une étude numérique des deux scénarios a été menée mêlant simulations directes (DNS) et simulations aux grandes échelles (LES):-Pour un mélange d’hydrogène/air pauvre, une forte accélération de la flamme est observée expérimentalement sans transition à la détonation. Les grandeurs caractéristiques de l’explosion ont été reproduites avec des simulations aux grandes échelles (LES). Plusieurs mécanismes d’accélération de flamme ont été identifiés et attribués au haut niveau de confinement et de congestion dans la chambre. Le couplage de ces mécanismes explique les grandes vitesses de propagation observées. -Pour un mélange stoechiométrique, une transition à la détonation est observée. Cette thèse s’est focalisée sur les instants précédant l’initiation de la détonation afin de caractériser les conditions nécessaires pouvant mener à cet événement soudain, en se basant sur une approche de simulation directe (DNS). Une attention particulière a été portée à l’influence du schéma cinétique sur ce scénario. Comme constaté dans bon nombre d’incidents industriels, les mesures préventives peuvent échouer. Le cas échéant, des procédures visant à contrôler l’impact des explosions doivent être utilisées pour éviter une catastrophe de grande ampleur. L’utilisation d’inhibiteurs chimiques est une technique qui a déjà fait ses preuves contre les feus. Elle consiste à injecter des poudres capables de réagir chimiquement avec la flamme et de réduire son taux de dégagement de chaleur. L’étude de l’interaction de ces particules solides avec la flamme correspond au deuxième volet de cette thèse. Un modèle simplifié de décomposition de ces particules solides (HetMIS) a été développé dans un contexte LES. Deux aspects ont été explorés : 1) l’interaction unidimensionnel flamme/particule a permis d’établir un critère, basé sur la taille des particules, caractérisant l’efficacité des poudres dans le processus d’inhibition; 2) l’effet de la distribution spatial des particules sur la propagation de la flamme est analysé dans le but d’apporter une explication à certains résultats expérimentaux révélant un effet opposé des inhibiteurs dans certaines conditions. / Mining, process and energy industries suffer from billions of dollars of worldwide losses every year due to Vapour Cloud Explosions (VCE). Moreover, explosion accidents are often tragic and lead to a high number of severe injuries and fatalities. The VCE scenario is complex and controlled by various mechanisms. The interplay among them is still not entirely understood. Understanding all these intricate processes is of vital importance and requires detailed experimental diagnostics. Coupling accurate numerical simulations to well documented experiments can allow an elaborate description of these phenomena. This thesis focuses on explosions occurring on configurations that are either semi-confined or confined. In such configurations, the explosion is generally initiated by a mild ignition and a subsonic flame front emerges from the ignition source. An important feature of self-propagating flames lies in their intrinsically unstable nature. When they propagate in an environment with high levels of confinement and congestion, which is the case in most industrial sites, a Flame Acceleration (FA) process is often observed that can give rise to very fast flames, known for their destructive potential. In some cases, the FA process can create the appropriate conditions for the initiation of detonations, which corresponds to a rapid escalation of the explosion hazard. To reproduce the confinement and congestion conditions that one can find in industrial sites, the university of Munich TUM equipped a confined chamber with a series of obstacles and analysed the influence of repeated obstructions on the propagation of hydrogen/air deflagrations. This experimental study showed a strong influence of the mixture composition on the acceleration process. A Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) has also been observed for a certain range of equivalence ratio. This configuration is therefore ideal to study the mechanisms of flame acceleration as well as the intricate DDT process. A numerical study of both scenarios is performed in this thesis: -First for a lean premixed hydrogen/air mixture, a strong flame acceleration is observed experimentally without DDT. The characteristic features of the explosion are well reproduced numerically using a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach. The crucial importance of confinement and repeated flame-obstacle interactions in producing very fast deflagrations is highlighted. -DDT is observed experimentally for a stoichiometric hydrogen/air mixture. This thesis focuses on the instants surrounding the DDT event, using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). Particular attention is drawn to the impact of the chemistry modelling on the detonation scenario. The failure of preventive measures is often observed in many explosion accidents. To avoid a rapid escalation of the explosion scenario, mitigative procedures must be triggered when a gas leak or an ignition is detected. Metal salts (like potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate) have received considerable attention recently because well-controlled experiments showed their high efficiency in inhibiting fires. The last part of the thesis focused on the mechanism of flame inhibition by sodium bicarbonate particles. First, criteria based on the particle sizes are established to characterize the inhibition efficiency of the particles. Second, two dimensional numerical simulations of a planar flame propagating in a stratified layer of very fine sodium bicarbonate particles showed that under certain conditions these powders can act as combustion enhancers. These results echo a number of experimental observations on the possible counter-effects of the inhibitors.

Les travaux présentés dans ce mémoire de thèse s’inscrivent dans le projet ANR BARPPRO réalisé dans le cadre de la réglementation française des PPRT pour les sites industriels classés SEVESO. L’objet est de proposer un outil pour le dimensionnement des barrières physiques de protection face à une déflagration de gaz. Une étude paramétrique à petite échelle est menée pour étudier l’effet protecteur d’une barrière physique. Un dispositif d’accélération de flamme a été conçu pour générer une vitesse de flamme sonique. Cela a permis de réaliser à petite échelle l’étude de l’impact de l’obstruction sur la vitesse de flamme et sur les paramètres de l’onde de pression. Ces résultats ont été confrontés aux modèles de la littérature. L’onde de pression incidente ainsi générée sert de donnée d’entrée et de référence dans l’étude de la barrière. Plusieurs paramètres de l’onde de pression sont étudiés : le temps d’arrivée, la surpression maximale et l’impulsion positive. L’influence de la hauteur du mur et de sa position par rapport à la source d’amorçage est traitée pour deux formes de barrière (droite et cylindrique) et pour deux mélanges hydrogène/air (stoechiométrique et de richesse 0.65). / This thesis is a part ANR BARPPRO project in the framework of the French regulation PPRTs for industrial Seveso sites. The goal of the present work is to provide a tool for the sizing of protective physical barriers against a gas explosion. A parametric study at small scale is conducted to investigate the protective effect of a physical barrier. For that purpose, a cylindrical device was developed to accelerate the flame gradually until reaching sonic flame speeds by increasing the obstruction inside the device. This has also led to the realization of a small-scale study about the impact of the obstruction on the flame speed and on the pressure wave’s characteristics. These results are compared with those obtained with models from the literature. The pressure wave generated by the acceleration device is used as input and reference in the barriers’ parametrical study. Several parameters of the pressure wave are considered: the arrival time, the maximum overpressure and the positive pulse. The influence of the wall height and position relative to the ignition source is processed for two barrier’s shapes (straight and cylindrical) and two hydrogen / air mixtures (stoichiometric and with an equivalence ratio of 0.65).

Cette étude s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’évaluation du risque d’accélération de flamme en situation accidentelle. La méthodologie développée dans le cadre de l’évaluation du risque hydrogène dans l’industrie nucléaire a permis de proposer un critère permettant d’évaluer le risque d’accélération des flammes de prémélange hydrogène/air/diluants, sur la base des propriétés du mélange. L’objectif de cette étude est l’acquisition de données fondamentales relatives aux mélanges gaz naturel/air et gaz de synthèse/air puis l’extension de la méthodologie appliquée aux mélanges hydrogène/air à ces mélanges. Ainsi, trois mélanges gazeux ont été choisis et ont fait l’objet de cette étude. Il s’agit du G27 (82%CH4/18%N2), du G222 (77%CH4/23%H2), et du H2/CO (50%H2/50%CO). Au cours de ce travail les limites d’inflammabilités des mélanges ont été déterminées pour une température initiale de 300 K et une pression de 1 et 2 bars. Les vitesses fondamentales de flamme et les longueurs de Markstein ont été mesurées à différentes températures initiales (300, 330 et 360 K) et à deux pressions initiales (1 et 2 bar) pour chacun des mélanges. Une modélisation cinétique de la vitesse de flamme a été réalisée et a permis l’évaluation de l’énergie d’activation globale sur la base du modèle cinétique présentant le meilleur accord avec l’expérience. La propension des mélanges a s’accélérer fortement en présence d’obstacles a ensuite été caractérisée au cours de l’étude de l’accélération de flamme. Cette étude de l’accélération de flamme a permis de mettre en évidence que différents critères d’accélération s’appliquent selon que la flamme soit stable ou pas. Un critère permettant de prédire l’accélération de flamme a été proposée dans les deux cas. / The context of the current study is the assessment of the occurrence of flame acceleration in accidental situations. The methodology developed for the assessment of hydrogen hazard in the nuclear industry led to the definition of a criterion for the prediction of the acceleration potential of a hydrogen/air/dilutant mixture based on its properties. This study aims to extend this methodology to gaseous mixtures that can be encountered in the classical industry. Therefore, three mixtures were chosen: the first two are representatives of a natural gas/air mixture: G27 (82%CH4/18%N2) and G222 (77%CH4/23%H2). The third one is a H2/CO (50%H2/50%CO) mixture and represents the Syngas. During this work, flammability limits were measured at 300 K and two initial pressures (1 and 2 bar) for each mixture. Fundamental flame speeds and Markstein lengths were also measured at three initial temperatures (300, 330, 360 K) and 2 initial pressures (1 and 2 bar) for each mixtures. A kinetic modeling was performed based on three detailed kinetic models and allowed the calculation of the global activation energy on the basis of the kinetic model which showed the best agreement with the experimental data. The acceleration potential for each mixture in presence of obstacles has then been investigated. It was found that different criteria were to be applied depending on whether the flame is stable or not. A predicting criterion was proposed in both case.

Le risque d’explosion des mélanges H2/air revêt toujours une importance cruciale pour la gestion des accidents graves dans les centrales nucléaires. Des critères expérimentaux ont été proposés dans les années 2000 par Dorofeev et al. afin de déterminer les conditions nécessaires à l’accélération de flamme et à la TDD. Ce travail de thèse a l’objectif de mieux comprendre les mécanismes d’accélération des flammes de prémélange H2/air et de fournir une solide base de données expérimentales pour la validation des codes utilisés pour les études de sûreté. Les expériences ont été menées dans un tube muni d’obstacles (taux de blocage entre 0.3 et 0.6) avec un diamètre interne de 12 cm et une longueur d’environ 5 m. Les effets de la pression initiale et de la dilution en azote sur des mélanges pauvres en H2 ont été étudiés. Les résultats montrent que la pression favorise l’accélération seulement pour les mélanges les plus réactifs et que la surpression induite par la combustion est directement proportionnelle à la pression initiale. Les interactions flamme-choc ainsi que les instabilités thermo-diffusives jouent un rôle important sur la propagation de flamme. Une nouvelle technique a été développée dans le but d’obtenir une représentation plus fine du profil de vitesse de flamme. Des mesures d’absorption IR résolues dans le temps ont été effectuées en dopant le mélange avec un alcane. Le profil de vitesse a été obtenu en mesurant la variation d’extension du gaz frais pendant l’avancement de la flamme. Enfin, des analyses préliminaires ont été menées pour la conception d’un nouveau dispositif expérimental pour l’étude des effets de la combustion sur des structures en acier inox. / Flame acceleration and explosion of hydrogen/air mixtures remain key issues for severe accident management in nuclear power plants. Empirical criteria were developed in the early 2000s by Dorofeev and colleagues providing effective tools to discern possible FA or DDT scenarios. The objectives of the present work are to better understand the mechanisms of acceleration for premixed H2/air flames and to provide a solid base of experimental data for the validation of the codes used for safety analyses. The experiments were performed in an obstacles-laden tube (blockage ratio between 0.3 and 0.6) with 120 mm internal diameter and about 5 m length. The effects of the initial pressure and the nitrogen dilution on lean H2 mixtures have been studied. The results show that pressure promote flame acceleration only for highly reactive mixtures. Moreover, the overpressure induced by the combustion is directly proportional to the initial pressure. Besides, flame-shock interactions and thermo-diffusive instabilities play an important role in flame acceleration. A new technique to track the flame position along the tube has been developed in order to obtain a finer representation of the flame velocity profile. The method consists in performing time-resolved IR absorption measurements by doping the mixture with an alkane. The velocity profile is then derivedby measuring the variation of the extension in depth of the unburnt gas along the tube axis. Finally, analyses on the effects of combustion generated loads on stainless steel structures were performed in order to provide preliminary results for the design of a new experimental device.