Aspects of laboratory tests for the determination of the minimum ignition energy of the fuel / dust mixture

¹ The National Institute of Research and Development for Safety in Mines and Explosion Protection, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea, Petroşani, România
² University of Petroşani, 20 Universităţii Street, Petroşani, 332006, Romania

^* Corresponding author: mihai.popa@insemex.ro

Abstract

During the technological processes of processing, production, handling and storage of combustible dusts, complex explosive mixtures may occur, the characteristics of which, in most cases, cannot be assimilated with the existing data in the specialized literature. If these combustible dusts are mixed with air in appropriate proportions and are initiated by an efficient source of ignition, they can burn rapidly and with considerable explosive force. One of the most common sources of ignition of potentially explosive atmospheres generated by the dust / air mixture is static electricity, materialized by electrostatic discharges. In order to assess the risk of ignition of an explosive mixture of air / dust, it is necessary to know the sensitivity of the explosive atmosphere to ignition, ie the value of the minimum ignition energy of the explosive mixture, which is then compared with the energy resulting from an electrostatic discharge. The paper presents a comparative analysis regarding the methods of determining the minimum ignition energy for air / fuel dust mixtures, using different devices, on the same type of dust.