Flame Propagation in Stratified Dust-Air Mixtures

The presentation published here was presented at the 2024 Spring Technical Meeting of the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute (CSSCI), held at Case Western Reserve University in May 2024.

The work is generally motivated toward understanding the phenomenology of turbulent dust flame propagation in conditions that are representative of an actual process vessel. Historically, there has been an emphasis on conducting laboratory experiments at nominal reference conditions which are idealized as being homogeneous, despite the fact that we have substantial evidence incidating that the conditions are highly stratified. While some reseachers have achieved relatively homogeneous conditions, particularly in tubes with elutriation devices, Eckhoff (2015) captured the tension between pursuing the perfect cloud and the value of such a cloud by stating:

"If it were at all possible to produce a 'perfect' experimental dust cloud, would this help us predicting the course of real industrial dust explosions."