Laboratory Scaled Coal Dust Explosions and Physical Test Results for CFD Explosion Models

The work was carried out during an exchange program of several-months at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in Golden, Colorado. The goal of the thesis was to investigate scaled methane and coal dust explosions for the validation of CFD models. A series of different tests were performed in a horizontal, cylindrical steel reactor with a length of 1.5 m and a diameter of 63 mm at a scale of about 1:30. These tests are used to investigate the effect of coal dust on the combustion process by measuring the velocity of propagation. Furthermore, a reactor was constructed to visualize coal dust explosions, their interaction with the methane flame and the entrainment of coal dust particles. These approaches will help to understand the relationship between the particle dispersion and the turbulent flame propagation and to prepare experiments in a larger, ~1:5 scaled steel reactor (L = 31 m, D = 0.71 m).