Open AccessInvestigation on the Explosion Characteristics of an Aluminum Dust–Diethyl Ether–Air Mixture
Author(s) -
Ning Yao,
Bai Chen,
Liqiong Wang,
Nan Liu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.1c02081
Subject(s) - ignition system , diethyl ether , minimum ignition energy , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , work (physics) , autoignition temperature , thermodynamics , chemistry , physics , chromatography
In this work, the explosion characteristics of an aluminum (Al)-diethyl ether (DEE)-air mixture were investigated in a 20 L spherical vessel. The effect factors of the explosion characteristics considered were fuel concentration, component proportion, and ignition energy. With the increasing concentration of the mixed fuel (Al/DEE = 1:1), the maximum pressure ( P max ), the maximum rate of pressure rise ((d P /d t ) max ), and the flame propagation speed (ν F ) exhibit an inversely "U-shaped" curve. The maximum P max , (d P /d t ) max , and ν F values are 901.2 kPa, 148.3 MPa/s, and 15.3 m/s, respectively, corresponding to an optimum concentration of 600 g/m 3 . The P max , the (d P /d t ) max , and the ν F increase with the addition of DEE when the proportion of DEE is below 55% but have a decrease tendency when the proportion of DEE is over 55%. As the explosions of Al and DEE were mutually promoting, the studied explosion characteristics of the Al-DEE-air mixture are obviously higher than those of pure Al or DEE in air. The minimum ignition energy (MIE) of the Al-DEE-air mixture is 1.9 mJ, between the MIE of Al and DEE. With the increase of ignition energy , P max , (d P /d t ) max , and ν F all increase, while the minimum explosion concentration presents a linear decreasing trend. This work could provide significant scientific evidence for evaluating the explosion risk of the Al-DEE-air mixture.