Numerical and experimental analysis of particle dispersion in dust explosions

Dust explosions take place when small particles of flammable material such as grain, wood, plastic, coal and metal are dispersed in air and ignited. An important research tool that is used for describing dust explosion characteristics is the Hartmann apparatus, where dust is dispersed by a pressure wave. This makes it possible to find e.g. the minimum ignition energy. Nevertheless, there is a question whether the formed dust cloud is uniformly dispersed and how the solid particles behave as they flow. In addition to the scientific curiosity there is also a practical application, namely at what point in time the explosive mixture should be ignited in order to obtain the most representative results. The objective of this research was to run computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations, using the commercial software Star CCM+, with the purpose to numerically investigate the dispersion of a single particle in a modified Hartmann tube. Numerical models affecting the particle-wall and the particle-gas interact...