Experimental study on the domino effect in explosions caused by vertically distributed methane/air vapor clouds.

• The flame evolution behavior of vapor cloud explosion ignited at different positions were analyzed. • Experiments of chained explosions for vertically distributed vapor clouds were conducted. • The effect of vapor cloud diameter and separation distance on the secondary explosion was discussed. • The regime of the enhanced secondary explosion was revealed. Chained explosions happened occasionally, leading to heavy casualties and huge property losses. However, the development regime of the chained explosions is unclear. Experiments of both single and two vertically distributed vapor clouds with different sizes, volume concentrations and ignition conditions were conducted. The experimental results show that the maximum overpressure generated by the primary methane/air mixture explosion increases with vapor diameter, but hardly changes with the ignition energy. The effect of ignition position on chained explosions is significant since the development trajectory of the primary explosion varies with the ignition position. The secondary explosion is more likely to be triggered in the case of ignition at the center of the primary vapor cloud. Because of the enhanced ignition and turbulence induced by the primary explosion, the maximum overpressure and rate of pressure rise of the secondary explosion are larger than that of the primary explosion and increase with a decrease in the separation distance between the two vapor clouds. In addition, the development of the explosion flame for the secondary explosion induced by a primary explosion is asymmetric due to the uncertain ignition point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]