Determination of conditions for spontaneous combustion of combustible dust deposits on equipment, in ventilation systems, and aspiration systems of buildings and structures

Introduction. Determination of the scientifi cally substantiated frequency of cleaning the ducts of local exhausts of industrial buildings and structures is one of the tasks in the fi eld of fi re safety of industrial enterprises. The paper describes design methods, in particular, a method for determination of the induction period during spontaneous combustion of dust deposits in air ducts of ventilation systems and equipment, which can be used in solving problems focused on the development of preventive measures to ensure their fi re and explosion safety.

Methods. In order to solve the problem set in this paper and compare the indicators obtained in the calculation and analytical part of the studies with the growth dynamics of deposits in real facilities, fi eld tests have been accomplished in the production facilities of the fl our mill of OJSC MK “Voronezhsky” and JSC Concern “Sozvezdiye”.

Results and discussion. The timeframes for cleaning of deposits on ventilation (aspiration) equipment of buildings and structures cannot be universal for various industries and must take into account the dynamics of the growth of deposits depending on the specifi cs of combustible deposits, the workload of the production facilities of the protected object in a given period of time, and the operating conditions of the equipment. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the places of maximum accumulations of deposits are most often formed on the surfaces of joints and on the bends of pipelines of ventilation systems. The conditions of spontaneous combustion of combustible dust are studied by calculation and analytical method, depending on such process characteristics as the speed of the dust-air mixture fl ow in the duct, as well as the diameter of the duct’s cross section.

Conclusions. The nomograms built on the basis of the studies performed can be used to determine the multiplicity of cleaning of combustible dusts of equipment and air ducts of industrial ventilation systems. The paper provides a calculation of the period of induction of spontaneous combustion of combustible dust deposits using the example of rye fl our with asymmetric heat transfer. Its signifi cance is due to the process of accumulation of deposits of combustible dust to a critical thickness in terms of spontaneous combustion conditions.

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