Influence of turbulent flow on the explosion parameters of micro- and nano-aluminum powder-air mixtures

摘要

The environmental turbulence intensity has a significant influence on the explosion parameters of both micro- and nano-Al at the time of ignition. However, explosion research on turbulence intensity with respect to micro- and nano-Al powders is still insufficient. In this work, micro- and nano-aluminum powders were investigated via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their particle size distributions were measured using a laser diffraction analyzer under dispersing air pressures of 0.4, 0,6, and 0.8 MPa in a 20 L cylindrical, strong plexiglass vessel. The particle size distributions in three different mass ratio mixtures of micro- and nano-Al powders (micro-Al:nano-Al-[massratio] 95:5, 90:10, and 85:15) were also measured. The results show that the agglomerate size of nano-Al powder is an order of magnitude larger than the nanoparticles' actual size. Furthermore, the turbulence intensity ranges (U-rms) of the Al powder-air mixtures were measured using particle image velocimetry (PIV) under dispersing air pressures of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 MPa. The effect of turbulence intensity on the explosion characteristics of the micro- and nano-Al powders was investigated using a 20 L cylindrical explosion vessel. The results of micro-Al and nano-Al powder-air mixtures with a stoichiometric concentration of 337.00 g.m(-3) were discussed for the maximum explosion pressure, the maximum rate of pressure increase and the maximum effective burning velocity under the different turbulence intensity. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.