@article{ref1,
title="Moderation of Al dust explosions by micro- and nano-sized Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>powder",
journal="Journal of hazardous materials",
year="2019",
author="Bu, Yajie and Li, Chang and Amyotte, Paul and Yuan, Wenbo and Yuan, Chunmiao and Li, Gang",
volume="381",
number="",
pages="e120968-e120968",
abstract="Adding solid inertants to combustible dust is one measure to prevent and mitigate dust explosions. Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> at four particle size distributions was used to determine the minimum ignition energy (MIE) and maximum explosion pressure (P<sub>max</sub>) of aluminum dust and thus examine the effect of particle size on the inerting efficiency. It was interesting to observe that nano-sized Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> powder showed excellent promise as a solid inertant, having inerting efficacy superior to that of micro-sized Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>. In addition to thermal inhibition, nano Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> contributed to explosion moderation by binding Al particles together forming larger-sized aggregates that reduce dispersion in the dust clouds, and thus alleviate explosion hazards. Ignition sensitivity increased when micro-sized Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> was admixed at 5 or 10% with 1000-1500 g/m<sup>3</sup> Al mixtures, an effect apparently caused by a 20% decrease in effective particle size distribution brought on by the Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> addition. Generally, increasing the amount of admixed Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> increased MIE and decreased P<sub>max</sub> of Al dust clouds, and decreasing the particle size of Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> resulted in better inerting performance on moderating both the likelihood of the ignition and the consequence of the explosion.<br><br>Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0304-3894",
doi="10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120968",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120968"
}