A comparative study between two ignition sources: Electric igniter versus pyrotechnic igniter

Abstract

The risk assessment of combustible explosive dust is based on the determination of the probability of dust dispersion, the identification of potential ignition sources and the evaluation of explosion severity. It is achieved in most of cases with the two main experimental normalized devices such as the Hartmann tube (spark ignition) and the 20 L spherical bomb (with two 5 kJ pyrotechnic ignitors).Ignition energy of the 5 kJ ignitor is well calibrated and generates a reproducible ignition. But, on the other hand, this ignition is not punctual and the over pressure produced is nearly 2 bar. Moreover, the pyrotechnic igniter accelerates the combustion with multi ignition points in a large volume and that disturbs the flame propagation. In this way, this ignition source does not allow to analyze the combustion products because the composition of the pyrotechnic igniter was found in the combustion products.This paper deals with the comparison of two ignition sources in the 20 L spherical bomb. Different explosive dusts of great industrial interest are studied with electrical and pyrotechnic ignitors, in order to understand, first, the influence of each type of igniter on the explosion behaviour and then to evaluate the possibility of establishing a correspondence between parameters obtained with these two ignition sources.Severity parameters of nicotinic acid, aluminium powder and titanium alloy were measured by using the two types of ignition system in our 20 L spherical bomb equipped with the Kühner dihedral injector. The explosion overpressure P and the rate of pressure rise (dPdt) were measured in a large range of concentration allowing to propose correlations between electrical and pyrotechnic ignition for each parameter and each type of powder. These correlations aim to link the tests used with two different collections of experimental parameters for the same dust. The relevance of these correlations will be discussed.