Investigation On The Explosion Characteristics Of An Aluminum Dust-Diethyl Ether-Air Mixture

In this work, the explosion characteristics of an aluminum (Al)-diethyl ether (DEE)-air mixture were investigated in a 20 L spherical vessel. The effect factors of the explosion characteristics considered were fuel concentration, component proportion, and ignition energy. With the increasing concentration of the mixed fuel (Al/DEE = 1:1), the maximum pressure (P-max), the maximum rate of pressure rise ((dP/dt)(max), and the flame propagation speed (V-F) exhibit an inversely "U-shaped" curve. The maximum P-max, (dP/dt)(max), and v(F) values are 901.2 kPa, 148.3 MPa/s, and 15.3 m/s, respectively, corresponding to an optimum concentration of 600 g/m(3). The P-max, the (dP/dt)(max), and the v(F) increase with the addition of DEE when the proportion of DEE is below 55% but have a decrease tendency when the proportion of DEE is over 55%. As the explosions of Al and DEE were mutually promoting, the studied explosion characteristics of the Al-DEE-air mixture are obviously higher than those of pure Al or DEE in air. The minimum ignition energy (MIE) of the Al-DEE-air mixture is 1.9 mJ, between the MIE of Al and DEE. With the increase of ignition energy, P-max, (dP/dt)P-max, and v(F) all increase, while the minimum explosion concentration presents a linear decreasing trend. This work could provide significant scientific evidence for evaluating the explosion risk of the Al-DEE-air mixture.