Combustion behaviors and explosibility of suspended metal hydride TiH2 dust

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 45; no. 21; pp. 12216 - 12224
• Main Authors: Cheng, Yang-Fan, Wu, Hong-Bo, Liu, Rong, Yao, Yu-Le, Su, Jian, Wang, Wen-Tao, Shu, Chi-Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 17-04-2020
• Subjects: Dust explosion; Explosion index; Flame propagation speed; Hydrogen energy; Metal hydride; Hydrogen energy; Explosion index; Metal hydride; Dust explosion; Flame propagation speed
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.02.137

In the production and storage processes of metal hydride material of TiH2, there are at least three kinds of explosion hazards, for example, TiH2 dust explosion, H2 explosion and hybrid H2/TiH2 dust explosion. In this study, combustion behaviors of TiH2 dust cloud under isobaric and isochoric conditions were studied using a visual dust combustion facility and a standard 20-L spherical explosion vessel bomb, respectively, and Ti dust and hybrid H2/Ti dust were used as the reference materials. Experimental results showed that at equal dust concentrations, the flame propagation speed Sf, burning velocity SL, maximum pressure rise Pex and maximum rate of pressure rise (dP/dt)ex of TiH2 dust were all higher than those of Ti dust, while much smaller than those of hybrid H2/Ti dust except the maximum pressure rise Pex. The hydrogen state and content were the primary factors for the combustion differences of dust explosions. The values of explosion index Kst showed that the explosion risks of these samples increased as follows: Ti ˂ TiH2 ˂ hybrid H2/Ti dust.
•Combustion characterizations of TiH2 dust were studied with isobaric balloons.•Effects of hydrogen state and content on explosion characteristics were studied.•Explosibility of TiH2 dust, Ti dust and hybrid H2/Ti had been investigated.