Non-invasive assessment of dust concentration and relative dustiness in a dust cloud mobilized by a controlled air inlet inside STARDUST-U facility

In the framework of the on-going research on dust explosion, both a physical and chemical theory and numerical models extensively validated are yet to be found. In order to develop control tools essential to continuously measure a set of key parameters for dust explosiveness, the authors performed stainless steel dust mobilization experiments inside STARDUST-U facility using a controlled air inlet whose features are comparable to the ones typical of several industrial scenarios. Dust particles velocity and concentration within the cloud were measured with non-invasive diagnostics involving imaging techniques and a custom software. The STARDUST-U facility showed capability to provide useful data for validation of numerical models. Furthermore, a custom software allowed to determine the relative dustiness, defined as a non-dimensional parameter proportional to dust concentration and not dependent on dust mass and vessel volume. This study is a first step towards a complete integration of the air inlet modeling and dust tracking software, in order to determine dustiness inside the cloud. The authors believe that the imaging techniques presented could represent a valuable tool for industry in order to perform continuous monitoring of vessels with the aim of controlling and mitigating dust explosion risks.