DINAMIC GAS AND DUST EXPLOSION SIMULATION
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The DESC project started in 2002 and ended in 2004. The European Commission supported this project by means of a program called “Competitive and Sustainable Growth” (GROWTH). The project implied intense experimental activities, measurements inside the industrial processes, modelling and validation of results.
DESC was created under the control of a group of 11 participants, among which: Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), GexCon, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO), Fraunhofer ICT, Inburex GmbH, Warsaw University of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Forschungsgesellschaft fur angewandte Systemsicherheit und Arbeitsmedizin (FSA), Øresund Safety Advisers AB, Hahn & Co, and Lyckeby Culinar AB. |
APPLICATIONS
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In accordance with the new European norms concerning the explosion risk, the employer is obliged to assess the risk due to dust explosions which can occur inside his plant and he must demonstrate that he has implemented all the preventive / protective measures in order to minimize the explosion risk to an acceptable level (ATEX Directive 94/9/EC)
Moreover, it is necessary to demonstrate that all the equipment which operates in a potentially explosive atmosphere is fit for that use (ATEX Directive 94/9/CE)
In order to assess the risk correctly, it is necessary to analyse carefully all the possible explosion scenarios and the consequences of such accidental scenarios.
As the determination of the behaviour of overpressures and flames due to an explosion is of vital importance in order to estimate the consequences of a dust explosion, the results of a CFD code such as DESC are important both during the engineering of a powder handling plant and the design of the suitable protective measures, and also during the investigation of the accidents due to dust explosions.
The results that can be of any interest include:
 The optimization of the design of mitigating measures, including the best possible positioning of pressure and flame detectors, venting panels, bursting discs, venting ducts, suppressors, quick sliding valves, etc.
The estimation of structural loads due to pressure waves caused by explosions, being either accidents on buildings or on any other structures.
The identification of hazardous areas in the production plants
The investigation of the possibility and consequences of accidental scenarios due to domino effect.
The DESC code is particularly useful in order to investigate the scenarios of potential explosions in the complex industrial geometries, especially in the elongated vessels or in the “interconnected vessels”. |
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