Flammability limits and burning velocities of ammonia/nitric oxide
mixtures
Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 8 (4):
215--220 (July 1995)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0950-4230(95)00027-X
Abstract
The potential explosion hazard of mixtures containing ammonia and
nitric oxide was investigated in a constant-volume preheated test
cell. Ammonia/air and ammonia/nitric oxide mixtures were centrally
spark-ignited in the cell at initial temperatures from 25 to 220
C and initial pressures from 101 to 450 kPa. The ammonia/air mixtures
produced the expected results for flammability limit, agreeing well
with values from the literature. The ammonia/nitric oxide mixtures
are capable of producing powerful explosions with laminar burning
velocity over 1 m s-1 and a pressure rise over ten times the initial
pressure. Also, when mixing nitric oxide, oxygen and ammonia, it
was found to be possible to produce mixtures which reacted and self-ignited
on mixing. The paper presents flammability limits and burning velocities
as functions of temperature, pressure and gas concentration.