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Effects of the mean particle size in the deflagration index estimation for cornstarch dust

Abstract

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) defines the dust explosions as a “credible risk”. Hence, to meet the challenge to prevent and protect from the catastrophic effects of these phenomena, it is fundamental to know what are the characteristics and the burning conditions regarding the combustible dusts that could have an effect on the explosion violence. The KSt, also known as deflagration index, is one of the relevant parameters in dust explosions, together with the maximum explosion overpressure generated in the test chamber, the minimumignition energy and so on. In particular, the deflagration index measures the relative explosion severity and it is used in the design of the dust venting protection equipment. However, one of the criticalities of such a parameter is that is strongly affected by the particle mean diameter. Hence, in the following, it will be preliminary presented the validation of a single particle spherical model able to predict the variation of the deflagration index with the increasing mean particle size knowing just one experimental KSt value

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