Comparative studies on the explosion severity of different wood dusts from fiberboard production

Abstract

Wood dust samples with different particle sizes were used to investigate the explosion characteristics of wood dust. The dust samples came from Populus alba L., Pinus massoniana Lamb., and Cinnamonum camphora (L.) Pres., species that are commonly utilized in medium density fiberboard production in China. The thermogravimetric characteristics, element composition, and morphology of dust samples were analyzed to help explain the explosion phenomena in a 20 L sphere. The analysis showed that both the maximum explosion pressure and explosion index of wood dust presented a decreasing trend with increasing particle size, and the maximum explosion pressure values were in the range of 7 to 9 bar, regardless of species. For both explosion pressure and explosion index values, the wood dust with similar particle sizes were different, which are ranked as Populus alba > Cinnamonum camphora > Pinus massoniana. In addition, for the explosion pressure of wood dust with similar particle size, the dust concentration had threshold values. Additionally, the particle size and dust concentration had a synergistic effect on the explosion pressure and explosion index. Wood dust with a smaller particle size is more likely to explode at the threshold of concentration.