Thermal Radiation Of Inclined Large Scale Hydrogen Jet Flames

Christopher Bernardy; Abdel Karim Habib; Philipp Maximilian zur Nedden; Jakob Georg Raimund von Saldern; Jan Paul Beuth; Alessandro Orchini

doi:10.58895/hysafe.27

Thermal Radiation Of Inclined Large Scale Hydrogen Jet Flames

Volume 3 (2026): Issue 1

By: Christopher Bernardy , Abdel Karim Habib , Philipp Maximilian zur Nedden , Jakob Georg Raimund von Saldern , Jan Paul Beuth and Alessandro Orchini

Open Access

|Feb 2026

Abstract

In order to assess the thermal radiation emanating from hydrogen jet flames, experiments under real scale conditions were carried out at the Test Site Technical Safety of BAM. Herein, the behavior of inclined hydrogen jet flames was investigated. The aim of the work is to determine the Surface Emissive Power (SEP) and radiant heat fraction of these flames and to provide a reliable dataset for model evaluation purposes. Since the aforementioned values are not directly measurable, the incident heat radiation was measured at defined distances from the flame, as well as the flame’s shape and size. The required values were then derived from these measurements. The hydrogen releases ranged from 0.0125 kg/s to 0.175 kg/s with a 30 mm orifice. The mass flows were held constant during the releases, nevertheless a transient behavior of the flame could be observed since the experiments were carried out under open field conditions, with unsteady wind fields. In the literature, the flame lengths are often determined using visible light imaging, either by injecting coloring substances in the low light emitting hydrogen jet flame or by carrying out the measurements in darkness. In this work the jet flames were visualized using infrared (IR) and OH* imaging. The recorded flame shapes and resulting flame lengths are compared. Results from this showed that the flame lengths determined with OH* and IR recordings differ greatly. A flame length ratio l_{f OH*}/l_{f IR} in the range of 0.47–0.62 can be found. In addition, the SEP differ also in the range of 10 kW/m²–16 kW/m² (IR) and 40 kW/m²–80 kW/m² (OH*) for hydrogen jet flames due to differences in the determined flame surface. Conclusions regarding the determined x_RAD values for IR and OH* result in approximately the same range of 0.031–0.043.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58895/hysafe.27

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Language: English

Page range: 39 - 50

Submitted on: Jul 25, 2025

Accepted on: Jan 29, 2026

Published on: Feb 13, 2026

Published by: KIT Scientific Publishing

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

hydrogen safety,

jet flames,

thermal radiation,

large scale experimental investigation

© 2026 Christopher Bernardy, Abdel Karim Habib, Philipp Maximilian zur Nedden, Jakob Georg Raimund von Saldern, Jan Paul Beuth, Alessandro Orchini, published by KIT Scientific Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 3 (2026): Issue 1