Numerical study on the ignition behavior of coal dust layers in air and O2/CO2 atmospheres

•Both MITL and ignition delay time of coal dust layers clearly decrease with increasing XO2.•The inhibiting effect of CO2 is comparatively small on self-heating process.•MSIP varies with ambient gas conditions and ambient temperatures.•Heating value and heat transfer coefficient have a comparatively pronounced effect on MITL.

Understanding the fundamental basis of coal dust layers ignition behavior is of interest for the mitigation of industrial fires and explosions. This paper develops a 2D numerical method to investigate the self-ignition of coal dust layers with an emphasis on the roles of the oxygen mole fraction and diluent gas. A global one-step 2nd-order reaction kinetic model considering both coal density and oxygen density is used to estimate the reaction rate of self-heating process until ignition. In addition, the overall heat transfer coefficient is evaluated based on a steady state method and the kinetic parameters are estimated by fitting experimental and numerical temperature evolution figures. This model has been found to be valid to predict the transient temperature and concentration profiles until ignition. The numerical results of the minimum ignition temperature of dust layers (MITL) are in close agreement with experimental observations. The ignition delay time and the most sensitive ignition position (MSIP) of dust layer are found to vary with varying ambient gas conditions, hot plate temperatures and ambient temperatures using the verified model. The model provides a satisfactory explanation for the dependence of ignition characteristics of coal dust layer in oxygen-enriched oxy-fuel atmospheres.