Shortcomings of Explosion Venting Design

Hey guys, let me thank you all for making this blog a success and for sharing your thoughts. I hope you are gaining some useful insights for the queries which arise in your mind related to process safety. I can really add more value if, you drop in other queries and I probably can select some of them for the upcoming blog posts.

Now let’s discuss Dust Explosion Venting, which I guess many of you out there struggle with. 

For each dust, maximum overpressure and rate of pressure rise can be measured in an explosion severity test carried out using a 20-Litre Sphere, where a controlled explosion is carried out and the resultant pressure is measured in order to determine the (dP/dt)max and Pmax. This (dP/dt)max is then used to find Kst value utilising cubic law. 

Any vendor who is designing explosion vents will ask for at least Kst value of the powder handled, size of equipment and equipment drawing.

Next question which people ask is "What to do if we handle multiple powders in a single equipment?"

The answer is simple, understand the worst Kst dust being handled in your equipment and design your system according to that. 
Since Minimum Explosible Concentration (MEC or what is called as LEL of dust) is usually as low as 10-30 g/m3 as well for powders. So even if you are only expecting a small amount of a dust inside the equipment, its wise to consider the worst case Kst of the powder. 

Then the question comes “Is my system safe now I have provided explosion venting?”

The answer still depends on whether you have isolated the other systems connected to the equipment or not. I know this sounds alien to many of you, but its very simple to understand. Any pressure will be diverted to the easiest path with least resistance possible. 
On one side we provide explosion vent to the equipment which will burst open at a certain pressure (or a small resistance), however, the connected system is the easiest path for the pressure wave to travel (due to negligible resistance). So the answer is your system is safe only if you prevent the propagation of blast wave to the connected system by utilisation of EXPLOSION ISOLATION (can be active or passive, will be discussing on these in future) designed adequately to hold. 

The next question which arises here is that “Is my plant safe now since I have provided explosion vent and isolated other systems as well?”

The answer is dependent on where the explosion is being relieved. The relieved blast wave with flames or flameless (depends on the type of explosion vent used) has to go to a safe location such that it doesn’t hurt people and plant. I have seen plants, where explosion vent is facing a wall or two explosion vents are facing each other or an explosion vent is reliving on plant’s internal busy pathway. This can escalate the event and might lead to damage to people, equipment and property.

So there is the recipe for explosion protection using explosion venting. The ingredients involve Powder Kst, adequately sized explosion vent (designed as per Kst) relieving to a safe location, Explosion Isolation device to prevent propagation.

Hope this helps you guys in understanding the concept of explosion venting.

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