Abstract
Brush discharge ignitions of sulphur dust in oxygen-enriched atmospheres
have been established. From a total of approximately 300 trials,
brush discharges were able to start explosions of sulphur dust in
three trials. In these trials the atmospheres contained 55 vol\%,
60 vol\% and 70 vol\% oxygen, respectively. The work is motivated
by the fact that no brush discharge ignition of dust-air mixtures
has been observed in laboratory trials, despite an equivalent energy
of the discharge above the minimum ignition energy of some dusts.
By adding oxygen to the atmosphere in which the brush discharge is
generated, the dust-air mixture will be more prone to ignition. If
the critical oxygen concentration to establish ignition of very sensitive
dusts such as sulphur is considerably higher than the oxygen concentration
in air, it may be stated that a brush discharge cannot ignite dust-air
mixtures at atmospheric conditions. High-speed video recordings show
that all three ignitions occurred at the top edge of an evolving
dust cloud. The research is still ongoing.
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