Combined effect of ignition energy and initial turbulence on the explosion behavior of lean gas/dust-air mixtures

Explosions of hybrid mixtures of methane and nicotinic acid are investigated near the lower-flammability-limit conditions. The effect on the maximum pressure and deflagration index of the ignition energy and, then, of the ignition source in combination with the turbulence is analyzed. In correspondence of limit conditions for pure methane and pure nicotinic acid, the variation of both the ignition energy and the turbulence was found to affect the behavior of the explosion. It was observed that the deflagration index is determined to be independent from the ignition energy, even though the dependence on the turbulence still remains. © 2011 American Chemical Society.