Numerical simulation of dust explosion in the spherical 20l vessel

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents experimental and numerical validation of the combustion process of coal and flour dust dispersed in a spherical chamber of 20 cubic decimetres volume. The aim of the study is to validate the numerical simulation results in relation to the experimental data obtained on the test stand. To perform the numerical simulations, a Computational Fluid Dynamics code FLUENT was used. Geometry of the computational domain was built in compliance with EN 14460. Numerical simulations were divided into two main steps. The first one consists in a dust dispersion process, where influence of standardized geometry was verified. The second part of numerical simulations investigated dust explosion characteristics in compliance with EN 14034. After several model modifications, outcomes of the numerical analysis shows positive agreement with both, the explosion characteristics for different dust concentration levels and the maximum pressure increase obtained on the test stand.