The purpose of this thesis is an investigation in the wood dust explosions. For this study we decided to use the most common hardwood tree types in Slovenia forests, such as Birch and Oak trees. We used wood dust samples from these two species and did a couple of experiments in the laboratory, trying to determin the wood dust characteristics.
The research started by determining the shape of wood dust particles. To get, to the results we were looking for, we used scanning electron microscope (SEM). For both wood samples we obtained the results for particle size distribution and thermal properties with the usage of thermal analysis (TG, DTA, DTG and QMS). As we got the information about wood dust properties, we started to determine the conditions that are needed for development of wood dust explosions. Our experiments helped us determine the minimal ignition energy (MIE) and minimal explosion concentration (MEC) for both Birch and Oak wood dust. In the last part, of the experiment we figured out the consequences of the explosion from the wood dust samples. We determined the maximum explosion pressure (pmax) and maximum speed of rise pressure (p/t)max). At the end of the experiment, we calculated the deflagration index Kst from the maximum explosion pressure. If we interpret the results, we can conclude, that the parameter with the largest influence on the possibility of emergence as well as consequences of dust explosion, is the size of the dust particles.
The ground rule for every employee is, that his work is planed and derived in the way that is safe and not in any case harmful to his health. That is why, it is so important, that we think about industrial working place in the initial phase and how can we make the operation as safe as possible. We can lower the risks of dust explosions by approproate workspace design, ventilation, sorting the work equipment as well as building a safety culture of the employees. If we want to plan some kind of protection from the explosions, we need informations that will help determine the measures, on how to make work safe and profitable.
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