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We have developed a new propane burner that satisfies the requirements of localized fire test which was presented in SAE technical paper 2011-01-0251. This paper introduces the specifications of this burner and reports its characteristics as determined from various fire exposure tests that we conducted in order to gather data. These tests included temperature and heat flux distribution on cylinder surfaces, which would be useful for the design of automotive compressed fuel cylinders. Our fire exposure tests included localized and engulfing fire tests to compare TPRD activation time, cylinder burst pressure and other parameters between different flame configurations and tests to identify the effects of an automotive compressed fuel cylinder on localized fire test results.

To investigate methods of conducting flame exposure tests (bonfire tests) on high-pressure hydrogen gas cylinders that are safe and have high accuracy across repeated tests, we used numerical simulation and experiments to analyze the feasibility of using substitutive gases for filling as well as the effects of the burners used as the fire source. Through a series of virtual experiments using substitutive gases, flame scales, and filling pressure as parameters, we examined the maximum internal pressure, the rate of pressure rise, and the starting time of Pressure Relief Device (PRD) activation. Because substitutive gas properties differ from those of hydrogen gas, we concluded that using substitutive gases would be inappropriate. In addition, we observed that when the flame scale was small, the cylinder's internal pressure before the thermal-activated PRD activation, the rate of pressure rise, and the starting time of PRD activation all increased rapidly.