The Explosive Decomposition of Tetrafluoroethylene: Large Scale Tests and Simulations

Abstract

There is a lack of data on the self-ignition behaviour of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) in industrial sized equipment. In order to assess the tendency of TFE for decomposition in large scale vessels, , a facility was designed and constructed. Tests were carried out in a cylindrical reactor with a volume of 100 L with initial pressures of 5 and 10 bar(a). The effect of the reactor adjustment (vertical or horizontal) was taken into account. The current work describes the test setup and summarizes the experimental results achieved. Furthermore, this paper reports on a numerical model for the prediction of the self-heating of TFE in closed vessels, which was previously developed for small scale reactors and has been here validated for larger dimensions with the experiments performed in the new facility.