Dust explosion development in a vessel-duct arrangement

Yann Gregoire (1) , Christophe Proust (2, 1) , Emmanuel Leprette (2)

1 TIMR - Transformation Intégrée de la Matière Renouvelable
2 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

In many practical situations, a flame may appear inside a vessel and start to propagate inside the connected pipes. It may be a very hazardous situation and several mitigation means were developed to stop the subsequent explosion escalation (chemical barriers, gate valves, flap valves, diverters). There is a need to better understand the development of the explosion in such a situation. Unpublished data are presented in the present paper using mainly the ISO 1 m3 vessel connected to ducts with an internal diameter varying between 100 mm and 440 mm (length between 0 and 10 m). Four very different dusts were used. In all situations a strong link is found between the vessel overpressure and the flame velocity along the duct. Moreover, all along the period during which the flame rushes down the pipe, the discharge of the vessel is severely impeded and this phenomenon is believed to explain the very significant incidence of even a relatively short portion of duct on the explosion overpressure inside the duct as claimed into the vent dimensioning standards.

Keywords: DUST EXPLOSIONS; VENTED EXPLOSIONS; FLAME PROPAGATION

Domains: Environmental Engineering

Yann Gregoire, Christophe Proust, Emmanuel Leprette. Dust explosion development in a vessel-duct arrangement. 10. International symposium on hazards, prevention, and mitigation of industrial explosions (X ISHPMIE), Jun 2014, Bergen, Norway. pp.1539-1556. ⟨ineris-01862426⟩