Thermocouples positioning for early-warning detection of thermal runaway

Runaway reactions have always been a serious issue for the chemical industry. Failures that may lead to this type of accident are different: block of the impeller, loss of the reactor temperature control, error in the loading of reagents, just to name a few. The rapid detection of this phenomena is crucial. One of the most widely used preventive systems is the so-called early warning system, which allows to give an early warning at the beginning of the fugitive reaction. Due to non-homogeneity of the temperature inside the reactor, the positioning of the sensors is of crucial importance. In fact, an incorrect localization of the temperature probe could lead to a false alarm, which would undermine the early warning system. The objective of this work is the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of different failure scenarios, in order to determine the best location of the temperature sensors.