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Test silo for dust explosions

Article · July 2012

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 Test silo for dust explosions

Álvaro Ramírez-Gómez1*, Alberto Tascón2, Pedro José Aguado2, Francisco Ayuga1

1
BIPREE Research Group, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria S/N,
28040 Madrid, Spain
2
INRUMA Research Group. Dpto. Agricultura y Alimentación. Universidad de La Rioja, Avda.
de la Paz, 93. 26006 Logroño. Spain.
3
INRUMA Research Group. Dpto. Ingeniería y Ciencias Agrarias. ESTI Agraria. Universidad
de León. Avda. de Portugal 41. 24071 León. Spain.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: alvaro.ramirez@upm.es

Abstrat
It is common to find storage installations in the agri-food industries. The processes of filling
and discharge carried out in these installations usually lead to dust clouds, and therefore
potential explosive atmospheres. It is known that prevention and protection are the main
measures to be followed in these situations. Nowadays, there are many technical and
economical difficulties that avoid to achieve a viable protection in the agricultural silos. Some
studies have shown differences between standards in this regard, this is the case of the
European code (EN 14491, 2006) and the North American code (NFPA 68, 2007). This
implies that research is needed in this direction. Further knowledge about the explosion
process and venting is needed in order to arrive to optimal designs. Experimental work is
essential, because of that three research groups, two from the Universidad Politécnica de
Madrid and one from the Universidad de León, have joined efforts to develop an installation
that will allow the study of the explosion phenomenon and will allow to optimize the design of
protection devices.

Key words: Silo, dust, explosion, design, venting.

1. Introduction
When the organic material is finely divided and on the air forming a cloud of dust, a potential
explosive atmosphere can be formed if the dust concentration is enough (Eckhoff, 2003).
Operations as transport, load and discharge may generate dust clouds able to produce
explosions in agricultural industries involving loss of goods and materials.
When a dust cloud is ignited in a confined environment exothermic reactions are produced,
being developed a rapid increase of pressure until values of 7-10 bar (700-1000 kPa).
The EU legislation establishes the conditions that must fulfil the equipment to be mounted in
potential explosive atmospheres and the working conditions in two directives (ATEX 94/9/CE,
1994 and ATEX 1999/92/CE, 1999). These Directives receives the colloquial acronym ATEX
(ATmosphère EXplosible).
The basic system of protection against explosions in silos are venting devices, which allow to
release pressure generated when a dust cloud ignite in a controlled manner by means of its
rupture.
During the 80s and 90s several researchers have contributed to the knowledge of the dust
explosions in silos by means of the development of explosion tests. Remarkable tests are
those developed by Eckhoff in a silo of 500 m3 (Eckhoff, 1984); and in one of 236 m3
(Eckhoff, 1988); results by Bartknecht in 20 m3 (1985); the test of Siwek in 10, 25 and 250
m3 (Siwek, 1989); the tests of Tamanini in 63,7 m3 (Tamanini, 1996); Deng in 95 m3 (Deng,
1993); Hattwig and Hesel in silos of square section of 45 and 85 m3 (Hattwig, 1993); and
those developed by Eibl, Nars, Leuckel and Hochst in 50 m3 (Höchst, 1998).
However, nowadays there are still technical and economical difficulties to efficiently protect
agricultural silos (Tascón, 2009a). On the other hand, recent works (Tascón, 2009b) have
remarked significant differences between codes (EN 14491, 2006 and NFPA 68, 2007) when
venting surfaces must be determined to protect a silo. Because of that, it is needed to
continue doing research to know much better the explosion process and the venting
protection to find rules for the optimal design of silos and their protection. The development
of new design methods would allow contributing to the current normative, which is in a
constant review process.
Dust technology plays an important role to understand the processes implied: dust dispersion
and cloud formation, ignition, explosion and venting (Eckhoff, 2008). The complexity of these
processes, together with the numerous situations that can be presented inside silos, makes
necessary to research in this direction.
The main objective of this research work is the design of an experimental silo to develop dust
explosions for venting studies. This facility will contribute to the knowledge of those variables
that take part in the explosion phenomenon and venting; and also will provide information
useful for the design of more efficient protection equipment.
2. Description of the experimental silo
The design of the silo has been carried out according to the recommendations of the UNE
normative for the construction materials (UNE-EN 13445-2, 2010), the design of collars,
heads and bolted joints (UNE-EN 13445-3, 2010), the design of resistant equipment to
explosions (UNE-EN-14460, 2006) and also the Spanish Technical Building Code, (CTE DB
SE, 2006).

2.1 Silo
The proposed design is a silo with a circular section composed of 4 modules, 1.6 m long and
2 m diameter; the volume of each module is about 5 m3 (Fig. 1). The shell will be made of
steel P265GH and will have a nominal thickness of 12 mm that will allow to achieve a
nominal pressure of about 10 bar (1 MPa) without deformation.
The collars will be joined by using normalized flanges of circular section with fire-resistant
joints. The material for the flange assembly will be of steel S275JR.
Concerning the heads, they will be of two types: One of the heads will be a torispherical head
(Klöpper type), made also with steel P265GH of 12 mm thick and the other is built with the
same type of steel but with a square reinforced opening 1x1 m2:
• To screw the modular frame where the venting panels will be mounted to be tested.
• To allow cleaning and maintenance tasks inside the silo.

Figure 1. Sketch of the experimental silo. Front, lateral and back view.
2.2 Support structure
The silo will be placed in horizontal position, being each collar supported on two legs. The
support structure consists of legs, tie bars and gusset plates made of S275R steel.
The legs will be made with HEB-160 profiles and they will be welded in the upper part to
plates of the following dimensions 360x340x10 mm.
To gain stiffness the structure will be tighten in the longitudinal direction of the silo with a L
45.5 profile bolted to a plate of 10 mm thick that will be welded in the lower part of each leg.
The cross bracing system consists of steel bars of 180 mm2 net area. In the transverse
direction the legs will be tightened by a L60.5 steel profile bolted to identical plates that are
used to hold the steel bars in the longitudinal plane.
To make easier dismounting and handling the collars, lifting lugs will be welded on a plate
270x150x10 mm on the shell and they will be 10 mm thick with a shape adapted to the hook
crane that will be used.
The silo will be protected against the weather conditions inside a warehouse. Wheels 250
mm diameter and made of steel and polyurethane have been considered in the legs of the
silo to pull the silo out, where the explosion tests will be carried out.

2.3 Dust injection

The dust injection aims at generate the dust cloud inside the silo (Fig. 2). It will be similar to
the used in the German experimental silo of 50 m3 (Höchst, S., 1998). The system consists
of the injection of dust by means of pressurized bottles at 10 and 20 bar and nozzles in the
interior of the silo.

Figure 2. Sketch of the experimental silo. Dust injection system and instrumentation

To achieve the injection is needed the installation of a compressor that will be able to
pressurize all the bottles. Once is achieved the pressure needed, by means of the opening of
the quick opening valves, the dust will be introduced in the silo, being disperse by means of
nozzles similar to the used in the normalized explosion tests in the 1 m3 vessel (UNE-EN
14034-1, 2005) or other designs.
A pressurized bottle will be mounted in each collar. The content of dust will be modified to
get different concentrations of dust inside the silo. For tests with maize starch the
concentration that produces the highest values of overpressure is about 500 g/m3 (Eckhoff,
2003).

2.4 Instrumentation
The main parameter to be measured in the explosion tests will be the overpressure reached.
Studies modifying variables such as the aspect ratio, venting area, dust concentration,
ignition delay and so on will be carried out to observe the variation of the overpressure
values.
To be able to measure the generated overpressures in an explosion, that is a quick
phenomenon, it will be needed high speed data-acquisition systems and with enough
resolution- 16 bits-.
The instrumentation will be composed of 4 pressure cells, distributed along the silo (Fig. 2),
connected to a data-logger storing the measurements in a PC. The pressure cells selected
are piezo-resistive, model 4043 from Kistler and able to work in a wide range of pressure
from 0 to 10 bar. They can bear high temperatures and they will be screw in the silo, type of
thread M 14x125.
The data-logger is a Traveller CF from ESAM. It has a sampling rate of 250 kS/s, bandwidth
of 10 kHz with possibility of Wheatstone bridges connection and analogical trigger.
The ignition of the dust cloud will be achieved with chemical igniters. The normalized values
(UNE-EN 14034-1, 2005) are of 10 kJ, but also can be studied the effect of the intensity of
ignition energy over the pressure generated using different ignition sources.

3. Research possibilities that offer the silo

The modular character of the silo offers a wide range of possibilities to carry out tests in
different volumes and different aspect ratios.
The tests that can be carried out in the silo are the following:
• Explosion tests in normalized conditions (UNE-EN 14034-1, 2005) defining as a
variable the silo volume and the aspect ratio L/D to research on the influence of the pressure
devloped.
• Explosion tests in normalized conditions for a specific volume and aspect ratio L/D,
defining as a variable the venting area to study the pressure developed and compare it with
the normative used for venting design. 4 different geometric configurations can be studied (1-
4 modules) in which different venting areas will be tested.
• Explosion tests in normalized conditions modifying the moisture content, size
distribution or uniformity in the dispersion of the dust.
• Explosion tests in normalized conditions, varying the concentration and turbulence of
the dust cloud.
• Dispersion tests of dust within the equipment, without ignition and explosion, to study
different designs or dispersion conditions and get a better understanding about the dust
clouds generated.
If in the next future are mounted in the silo measuring devices for measuring dust
concentration and air velocity (Hauert, 1996) studies about the dust formation could be
carried out in an accurate manner. This will allow to carry out all the tests aforementioned for
different conditions different to the normalized ones.
Finally, it is important to remark that it would be possible to add more modules, extending the
silo, and achieving in this way higher volumes and more aspect ratios.

4. Conclusions
This work presents a design of an experimental steel silo to carry out explosion tests. The
facility will be modular, which will allow to modify in a easy way the volume and the aspect
ratio.
The equipment has been designed in a manner that will allow to study the effect of all the
parameters that have influence in the generated pressure in an explosion: volume, aspect
ration, venting area, venting type, ignition energy and characteristics of the dust cloud.
This silo will allow to get a better understanding of the explosion process and the venting
systems in a considerable volume, initially from 5 m3 until 20 m3, with the objective to
contribute to solve the difficulties that are still not solve in the protection of agricultural silos
against dust explosions.

5. Acknowledgements
The authors thank to the Ministry of Science and Innovation for funding this research Project
through the national Programme of R&D: Project AGL2009-13181-C02.

6. References
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states concerning equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive
atmospheres.
ATEX 1999/92/EC (1999) Directive 1999/92/EC on minimum requirements for improving the
safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres.
Bartknecht W. (1985) Effectiveness of explosion venting as a protective measure for silos.
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CTE DB SE (2006). Documento Básico Seguridad Estructural. Código Técnico de la
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venting or deflagrations in low strength silos. Proc. 5th Int. Coll. Dust Explosions. Abril 1993,
Pultusk, Polania.
Eckhoff R. K., Fuhre K. (1984) Dust explosion experiments in a vented 500 m3 silo cell. J.
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Eckhoff R. K., Alfert F., Fuhre K., Pedersen G. H. (1988) Maize starch explosions in a 236
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