Did a Dust Explosion Occur? Microscopic and Thermogravimetric Techniques to Determine if Dust Participated in an Explosion Event

摘要

In many explosion investigations, the presence of an explosible dust and the ability to rule out other fuels is used as justification that a dust explosion occurred. However in some investigations, it tends to be difficult to rule out other causes for an explosion or to definitively demonstrate that dust was the primary fuel. In other dust explosions, overpressure damage may be present in multiple connected process vessels or areas of a building. In those cases it may be desirable to determine whether the flame front propagated through dust clouds from vessel to vessel or from one area of a building to another.