Knowledge for the customized management of combustible dust hazards

Management of combustible dust hazards is complex and the consequences can be significant. We're working to provide the knowledge and tools necessary for making effective risk management decisions.

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Performance-based designs are permitted by NFPA 652 and the commodity combustible dust standards as an alternative to the prescriptive-based approach for complying with NFPA requirements.

Although performance-based designs are attractive for scenarios where it is impractical to adhere to the prescriptive-based requirements of the NFPA standards, they still require a rigorous justification for the design basis, making use of reliable data and detailed calculations. While a rigorous justification is warranted, the requirement is often prohibitive for individual organizations wishing to pursue the option.

Our goal is to address this challenge by bringing together a network of professionals that share a common goal of building and sharing the knowledge necessary to develop performance-based design options.

Collaboration on Shared Questions

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Hazard and Process Data

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Informed Design

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Recent Posts

An Engineering Approach to Explosion Vent Sizing
Conference Presentation

We recently attended the CSSCI Spring Meeting, and presented our early work toward developing a simplified simulation-based approach to sizing an explosion vent. The presentation is shared here and we look forward to collaborating on its future development with others in the community.

Last Updated: 5/21/24

Flame Propagation in Stratified Dust-Air Mixtures
Conference Presentation

Prof. Rolf Eckhoff questioned nearly a decade ago whether studying a "perfect" dust cloud in the lab will aid in predicting the course of industrial dust explosions. Our CSSCI presentation shared here is motivated by that question and reports new experimental work toward studying dust flame propagation under realistic conditions.

Last Updated: 5/21/24

NFPA Standards and Particle Segregation

The pouring of powdered materials provides a natural mechanism for separation by particle size -- this post compares dust particle terminal velocities to help explain why.

Last Updated: 8/13/22

Spray Booth Fire Safety using NFPA 33

Are you aware of the combustible dust hazards posed by powder-paint operations?

Check out our article on reducing combustible dust hazards in powder coating spray booths.

Published Online: 1/11/22

Comparison of NFPA Combustible Dust Standards

How much overlap is there between NFPA 652 and your commodity-specific standard?

Check out our visual comparison between the NFPA 652 and 654 bucket elevator requirements.

Last Updated: 10/7/22

Estimating Airborne Particle Size Distributions

Bulk solids materials will segregate by size during pouring, creating a cloud with spatially-varying reactivity.

Could analysis based on Stokes number yield an approach for optimizing explosion protection systems?

Last Updated: 7/20/22

Tutorial: Using the Particle Bin Calculator

This post provides basic theoretical background on Eulerian-Eulerian population balance methods, as implemented in ANSYS Fluent, and provides guidance on usage of the Particle Bin Calculator for calculating the proper boundary conditions for an Eulerian-Eulerian simulation with a discrete secondary phase.

Last Updated: 5/13/23

Review of NFPA 654 Housekeeping Limits

NFPA 654 specifies three different methods for evaluating housekeeping and whether it poses a flash fire or explosion hazard. Read this post for a review of the methods and a comparison of allowable thresholds with other commodity combustible dust standards.

Last Updated: 5/23/23

Contact

Combustible Dust Performance-Based Design Center

Marquette University
College of Engineering
Enginering Hall, 053
1637 W. Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53233
[email protected]

Marquette University

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