A Study on the Ignition Hazard of Flammable Mixtures by Radio-Frequency Spark

고주파 스파크에 의한 가연성 혼합가스의 점화위험성에 관한 연구

With a progress of electrical and electronic technology, radio-frequency circuits including high frequency components are widely applied to various industrial installations. Some of them are used in hazardous locations where explosive or flammable gases exist. As a result, ignition of such gases may be induced by a spark discharge when the radio frequency circuits are switched on or off. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ignition hazards of acetylene-air and ethylen-air mixtures experimentally based on the IEC 79-3 publication. In this experiment, we used a high frequency resistive circuit which consists of a co-axial cable, a $10{\Omega}$, $20{\Omega}$, $30{\Omega}$, $40{\Omega}$ or $50{\Omega}$ resistor and a power amplifier with frequency range up to almost 1 MHz. Experimental results show that the ignition of the acetylene-air and ethylen-air mixtures due to spark discharge depends primarily on the frequency of the power source in the resistive circuit: the minimum ignition voltage increases gradually with the increase of the frequency.