Experimental study on the relationship between the charge amount of polypropylene granules and the frequency of electrostatic discharges while silo loading

This paper is a report on the relationship between the charge amount (charge to mass ratio, q/m) of polypropylene (PP, 2–3 mm) granules and the frequency of electrostatic discharges that occur while loading a metal silo. The feedback control system was used in order to control the q/m of PP granules. The electrostatic discharges inside the silo were also observed using a conventional image-intensifier system. The charging control range for PP granules was from 0 to −12 μC/kg in the q/m. The results obtained from the experiments show that (1) two kinds of electrostatic discharges were clearly observed inside a metal silo while loading PP granules, i.e., brush discharges and incendiary bulk surface discharges; (2) the number of brush discharges and incendiary bulk surface discharges increased with the increase in the q/m of PP granules, almost reaching saturation; and (3) brush discharges and incendiary bulk surface discharges began to occur at the −1.16 μC/kg and −2.33 μC/kg points in the q/m, respectively, in this study.     

A posteriori hazard analysis and feedback information of an accidental event in the grains storage of an agrochemical product

The present study concerns a hazardous event which occurred in an industrial storage tank of a ground insecticide. A preliminary post-accident approach of the hazard evaluation is performed. The rapid report of the presence of an unstable functional group in the active product and of its potential thermal instability (CHETAH indices) has led to complete this examination by an experimental study of thermal analysis using isotherm exposition measurement (DTA) or with temperature programming by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and oxidability tests (BAM). The apparent kinetics of decomposition of the active matter of the ground insecticide has been represented by a global Arrhenius law.

A model designed for the simulation of heterogeneous thermal runaways based on the numerical solution of the transient mass and energy balances has been further applied to define the critical conditions of the storage and simulate its behavior.

The results obtained during this analysis with the experienced feedback allowed us on one side to explain the hazardous event and especially on the other side to modify the operating protocol of the conditions of formulation of the active matter on the inert mineral support.     

Analysis of dust distribution in silo during axial filling using computational fluid dynamics: Assessment on dust explosion likelihood

In this study, the dust distribution in a silo during axial filling was modelled using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The work focused on the dust concentration distribution in the silo, for evaluating the likelihood of a dust explosion in the silo. The simulation was conducted using a combination of renormalized (RNG) k-epsilon and discrete phase models, with standard pressure interpolation and a second order upwind scheme. The predicted dust concentration distribution showed a good agreement with experimental data adopted from the literature. It was found that the dust concentration distribution was influenced by mean velocity and turbulence flow. The simulation results suggest that the cornstarch concentration inside the silo was always above the lower explosion limit (LEL), hence requiring a mitigating action or a control system to reduce the explosion risk.     

Behaviour of smoldering fires during periodic refilling of wood pellets into silos

The evolution of smoldering fires in biomass stored in lab-scale silos with additional fuel material supplied repeatedly, has been studied. The direct effects of the added material on the sample are: cooling, enhanced thermal insulation, and facilitation of more intense combustion at a later stage. This article focuses on the cooling, which leads to an almost instantaneous reduction in the combustion rate. Surprisingly, this reduction does not vary only with the amount of material refilled – but also depends strongly on the stage of the smoldering process. This demonstrates that the underlying smoldering processes merely to a certain degree are regularized by the periodic refillings. Quantitatively, the functional relationship between the refilled amount and the change in combustion rate caused by the refilling was determined. The results displays four regimes, that reflect different stages of the smoldering process at the time of the refilling. Using the Arrhenius equation, we find for one of these regimes an expression for the ratio of combustion rates (immediately after to immediately before the refill) as function of the amount of added material. This expression contains only one free (undetermined) parameter. We determine the value of this parameter from the data and demonstrate that this value is consistent with a simple model for how the sudden cooling occurs spatially in the sample.     

Scaling of dust explosion violence from laboratory scale to full industrial scale – A challenging case history from the past

The standardized K_St parameter still seems to be widely used as a universal criterion for ranking explosion violence to be expected from various dusts in given industrial situations. However, this may not be a generally valid approach. In the case of dust explosion venting, the maximum pressure P_max generated in a given vented industrial enclosure is not only influenced by inherent dust parameters (dust chemistry including moisture, and sizes and shapes of individual dust particles). Process-related parameters (degree of dust dispersion, cloud turbulence, and dust concentration) also play key roles. This view seems to be confirmed by some results from a series of large scale vented dust explosion experiments in a 500 m³ silo conducted in Norway by CMI, (now GexCon AS) during 1980–1982. Therefore, these results have been brought forward again in the present paper. The original purpose of the 500 m³ silo experiments was to obtain correlations between P_max in the vented silo and the vent area in the silo top surface, for two different dusts, viz. a wheat grain dust collected in a Norwegian grain import silo facility, and a soya meal used for production of fish farming food. Both dusts were tested in the standard 20-L-sphere in two independent laboratories, and also in the Hartmann bomb in two independent laboratories. P_max and (dP/dt)_max were significantly lower for the soya meal than for the wheat grain dust in all laboratory tests. Because the available amount of wheat grain dust was much larger than the quite limited amount of available soya meal, a complete series of 16 vented silo experiments was first performed with the wheat grain dust, starting with the largest vent area and ending with the smallest one. Then, to avoid unnecessary laborious changes of vent areas, the first experiment with soya dust was performed with the smallest area. The dust cloud in the silo was produced in exactly the same way as with the wheat grain dust. However, contrary to expectations based on the laboratory-scale tests, the soya meal exploded more violently in the large silo than the wheat grain dust, and the silo was blown apart in the very first experiment with this material. The probable reason is that the two dusts responded differently to the dust cloud formation process in the silo on the one hand and in the laboratory-scale apparatuses on the other. This re-confirms that a differentiated philosophy for design of dust explosion vents is indeed needed. Appropriate attention must be paid to the influence of the actual dust cloud generation process on the required vent area. The location and type of the ignition source also play important roles. It may seem that tailored design has to become the future solution for tackling this complex reality, not least for large storage silos. It is the view of the present author that the ongoing development of CFD-based computer codes offers the most promising line of attack. This also applies to design of systems for dust explosion isolation and suppression.     

筒仓和容器中紊流度及粉尘浓度测定

采用ＬＤＡ及特殊粉尘测试系统测定了ＲＭＳ紊流度、流速及粉尘浓度，在标准的１ｍ３容器和１２ｍ３筒仓中进行的实验表明，１２ｍ３筒仓中的粉尘浓度与１ｍ３的数值相同，而１ｍ３容器的ＲＭＳ紊流度竖直分量（经０．６ｓ，ＲＭＳ＝５ｍ／ｓ）比１２ｍ３筒仓的值约高出２．５倍；若采用机械喷粉，则紊流度约高出１０倍。