Effect of Powder Condition on the Fire and Explosion Characteristics of Suspended and Deposited Dusts

An experimental investigation was conducted on the influences of median size, dust concentration, dustcondition (cloud and layer) for the fire and explosion hazard assessment of dusts with the same powder property. For this purpose, tests have been performed in accordance with 20 L explosion sphere, thermogravi- metric analyze, combustion rate tester (UN method). We investigated the explosion characteristics and flame propagation velocity (FPV) in dust cloud and the flame spread velocity(FSV) over dust layer on 8 dust samples with different particle sizes of 4 types of dusts (Sugar, Mg, Al, Zr). An explosion hazard increased with decreasing particle size in Mg and Al dust clouds, but sugar did not show the effect of explosion hazard due to particle size change in dust clouds. The flame propagation velocity (FPV) of suspended dusts increased significantly when the particle size decreased from micro to nano than the variation of particle size in micro range. The flame spread velocity (FSV) over dust layer showed a tendency to increase over the inclined dust layers (30 degrees slope) rather than the horizontal dust layers (0 degrees slope). The flame spread rate (FSV)over dust layers increased on the inclined dust layer (30 degrees slope) rather than the horizontal dust layer (0 degrees slope) and was higher upward flame than the downward flame in condition of inclined dust layers(30 degrees slope).