Study of Explosion Characteristics of the Wheat Flour Dust Clouds in Dependence of the Particle Size Distribution

Fire protection is an important part of the industry where flammable and explosive dusts are found. Production, storage and transport of food powders such as flour can be very dangerous in terms of explosiveness. The article deals with the measurement of explosion characteristics of wheat flour dust. The measurements were carried out according to EN 14034-1+A1:2011 Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds. Part 1: Determination of the maximum explosion pressure p_max of dust clouds and the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise according to EN 14034-2+A1:2012 Determination of explosion characteristics of dust clouds - Part 2: Determination of the maximum rate of explosion pressure rise (dp/dt)_max of dust clouds. A sample of wheat flour with a median particle size 84 μm exhibits the maximum explosion pressure 7.00 bar at the concentration of 600 g.m⁻³ and then explosion constant is 16.9 bar.s⁻¹.m. A sample of wheat flour with a median particle size 50 μm exhibits the maximum explosion pressure 7.97 bar at the concentration of 1000 g.m⁻³ and the explosion constant 54.9 bar.s⁻¹.m.Based on the results of the measurements, we found that the particle size distribution has a significant influence on the explosion parameters of the wheat flour samples.