Premium
Experimental investigation of a smouldering fire in an under‐ventilated silo
Author(s) -
Gentilhomme Olivier,
Truchot Benjamin,
Verdier Florent,
Poichotte François,
BarrierGuillot Bruno
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
process safety progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.378
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1547-5913
pISSN - 1066-8527
DOI - 10.1002/prs.12012
Subject(s) - silo , information silo , flammable liquid , explosive material , environmental science , engineering , flammability , waste management , materials science , geography , composite material , mechanical engineering , archaeology
An experimental bench was built and run to investigate the behaviour of a smouldering fire in an under‐ventilated silo. This smouldering fire was initiated by placing an electrical resistance at a given depth in the tested grain. The grain was successively corn, wheat, barley, oilseed rape, and sunflower. None of the tests resulted in an open fire but they all showed that the smouldering fire could generate an explosive atmosphere in the top part of the silo. When the venting conditions were kept unchanged within the silo, the tests also showed that the smouldering fire could become dormant resulting in no longer flammable gas concentration being measured in the silo. This phenomenon is associated with the formation of a carbonised rock around the heating resistance. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 38: e12012, 2019