A new technique to produce well controlled electrical sparks. Application to MIE measurements

Christophe Proust (1, 2)

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

Few laboratories in the world have kept the capability of measuring minimum ignition energies (MIE). When a flammable gas needs to be allocated an ATEX group other measurements may be performed like determining the minimum experimental safety gap (MESG). However, the relationship between MESG and MIE is statistical and certainly lacks accuracy and when more accurate information is required as for instance when investigating the influence of the initial conditions on the ignitability, direct MIE measurements are required. To be able to meet such request, the author’s team re-developed an expertise in this field be using up to date technologies. A brief review of the methods used in the past is first given highlighting the difficulties. Then a new technique is described with which the losses can be accurately estimated. The method was used for propane and hydrogen air.

Mots clés: MINIMUM IGNITION ENERGY; SPARK IGNITION

Domaines: Ingénierie de l'environnement

Christophe Proust. A new technique to produce well controlled electrical sparks. Application to MIE measurements. 13th International symposium on hazards, prevention, and mitigation of industrial explosions (ISHPMIE), Jul 2020, Braunschweig, Germany. ⟨ineris-03319936⟩