Numerical study on hydrodynamics and explosion hazards of corn starch at high-temperature environments

Dust explosions have been often reported in many industries that handle or process combustible dusts, with great losses to life and property. This explosion risk could be amplified under some extreme conditions like high-temperature environments. In this work, we develop a 2D numerical method to investigate explosion characteristics of corn starch cloud with an emphasis on the roles of high-temperature environments. The particle tracking trajectories and devolatilization evolution at high-temperature environments are described. The dust explosion severity characteristics including maximum explosion pressure (P_ex) and maximum rate of pressure rise (dp/dt)_max, are also investigated. In addition, the characterized devolatilization and explosion time are applied to analyze dust explosion behavior and flame propagation. The devolatilization evolution of dust cloud and flame propagation modes are found to vary with ambient temperature. And three ignition modes are observed after ignition. The simulation also provides a satisfactory prediction for dust explosion behavior at high-temperature environments.