Using thermodynamic availability to determine the energy of explosion for compressed gases

This paper expands on the work of Crowl by using thermodynamic availability to calculate the energy of explosion for compressed gases. The results show that thermodynamic availability is a completely general approach, including effects due to chemical reaction and mechanical expansion. For the case of a non-reactive gas, a general equation is presented to determine the energy of explosion due to mechanical expansion of the gas. The energy determined using availability is much less than the energy determined assuming an isothermal expansion and usually much more than the energy determined assuming an isentropic expansion. Since availability is a state function, the energy determined is independent of the path.