Experimental study and mechanism model on the ignition sensitivity of typical organic dust clouds in O2/N2, O2/Ar and O2/CO2 atmospheres

Abstract

To reveal and improve our understanding of the ignition behavior and mechanism, G-G furnace experiments of three typical organic dusts were performed to investigate the minimum ignition temperature (MIT) in O2/N2, O2/Ar and O2/CO2 atmospheres with oxygen mole fraction from 8.4% to 50%. The experimental results were presented in oxygen-lean and oxy-fuel atmospheres to evaluate the ignition sensitivity of dusts in different atmospheres. It was found that CO2 is the strongest in terms of lowing the ignition sensitivity of the three dusts, and the dust explosion risk increases significantly with increasing O2 mole fraction for the three dusts through a logarithmically and significantly reducing MIT. However, for different dusts, inert gases show different suppression effects. In addition, a modified steady-state homogeneous ignition model was proposed and successfully applied to oxygen-lean atmospheres, and in oxy-fuel atmospheres, this model has also been improved to estimate the ignition mechanism. This ignition mechanism model could be used to successfully predict the minimum ignition temperature of high volatile dust under different inert atmospheres controlled by homogeneous ignition, which will provide a reference for the ignition hazard assessment of dust on hot surfaces.