Abstract
Dust explosion hazard exists in plants and facilities handling combustible dusts. The minimum ignition temperature of dust clouds is an important parameter requiring special attention to designing the explosion preventive measures. This paper presents a model developed for determining the minimum ignition temperature for an organic dust cloud, polyethylene, simulating the conditions in the Godbert-Greenwald furnace. The model correlates the particle size, as well as the dust concentration with the minimum ignition temperature. It is based on the two-stage oxidation mechanism involving devolatilization/decomposition of the solid particle and homogeneous oxidation of volatile combustible products. In the case of polyethylene, the main combustible gas responsible for ignition and flame propagation has been confirmed to be butylene. The results of the computations were compared with the experimental values and those predicted by Mitsui and Tanaka. The predicted values by the model developed are in close agreement with the experimental data which confirm the proposed ignition mechanism. The model can be used for the prediction of minimum ignition temperature of organic dusts having an autoignition mechanism similar to polyethylene dust. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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