Dust Test Measurements
PARTICLE SIZE (microns):
Some materials are very inert as large pieces, but will burn
rapidly in small particulate. Particle size measurement is usually
in microns. This is also important for filter efficiency. Particle
size is also very important for health purposes: larger particles
may be trapped in the nose and throat where they are easy for
the body to get rid of, while fine particles (under 30 microns)
travel deep into the lungs.
MINIMUM IGNITION ENERGY (MIE):
This is a measurement of how much energy your dust requires to
ignite. Some dust requires a lot of energy to ignite (in some
explosions, the source of ignition has been an overheating
bearing or an open flame). Other dust can ignite with much less
energy. Static charges can ignite many types of dust. MIE is how
much energy the dust needs to make it ignite.
MINIMUM EXPLOSIVE CONCENTRATION (MEC):
This measures how much dust must be present to cause an
explosion. This measurement is usually with airborne dust. It
tells you how much dust in the air will ignite if there is a heat
source around. This is important because it explains how much
dust needs to be floating around in the air to cause an explosion.
A secondary explosion, which happens when dust that
accumulates in the area lofts into the air by the first explosion,
can involve a lot more dust and be a lot more dangerous.
MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM EXPLOSION PRESSURE (PMINand
PMAX):
The minimum and maximum explosion pressure. Personnel
conduct tests on dust inside a container that can measure
pressure. Pminis the smallest amount of pressure that ignition of
the dust can produce. Then there’s Pmax, which is more important.
It is the maximum amount of pressure that explosive ignition can
produce.
Pmax is measured by increasing the concentration of dust inside
the closed chamber and measuring the pressure of the explosion
until the maximum is reached (until the greatest possible amount
of damage has been determined). This is an important
calculation because it allows you to calculate how much damage
your dust is capable of doing inside a closed container (like
ductwork or a dust collector).
MAXIMUM RATE OF PRESSURE RISE/DEFLAGRATION INDEX
( KST):
This measurement is done in a similar way to Pmax. A
mathematical formula converts Pmax to KST, taking the volume
(size of the chamber) out of the measurement.
KST is an extremely important test! The Pmaxmeasures the
maximum pressure that the dust could exert exploding in a
closed space, but KST is a general measurement of explosiveness.
It is a standard measurement for dust collection system design
purposes.
The Importance of KST
KST is a measurement of explosion pressure, NOT of
combustibility. A low KST does NOT mean that your dust cannot
burn and cause catastrophic damage. KST only tells you how
strong the potential explosive force, not how flammable the dust
is.
A KST of 0 means that dust is not combustible; its Pmin and Pmax
are 0 and in a testing chamber it cannot produce any explosion.
A KST of greater than 0 means the dust is combustible; testing
Pmax can create an explosion in the testing chamber.
From 0 to 200 (which includes many metal dusts) the explosion
class is 1; a weak explosion. NOTE: a “weak explosion” does not
mean “no damage”! The catastrophic Imperial Sugar explosion
that destroyed a building and killed over a dozen people was
caused by sugar with a KST of 1.
A KST from 200 to 300 is a strong explosion (Class 2), and could
include things like cellulose dust, other organic fine dust, and
some metals and plastics.
A KST over 300 is a very strong explosion (Class 3). Aluminum and
magnesium dust are in this category.
Any dust with any Kst above zero is potentially combustible and
can cause an explosion. Your system will require appropriate fire
and explosion prevention. Fire prevention is key to keep ignition
sources out of the dust collector, including spark traps, abort
gates, and water or chemical suppression systems. Explosion
vent panels are also critical to make sure that an explosion does
not cause serious damage if it does occur.
Dust Testing: Putting the Pieces Together
As you can see, all of these pieces of information are important
when testing your dust.
– The KST (which is calculated from PMax) tells you how strong an
explosion is likely to be.
– The size of the dust is important in determining whether it is
combustible.
– The MIE tells you how much or how little energy it will take to
ignite your dust
– The MEC tells you how much dust in the air will risk an
explosion
A dust with a low KST (sugar, as an example, but also many
metals) has a low but not zero KST. It is not going to cause a
strong explosion. However, in one facility that had a lot of
accumulated sugar dust, an overheating piece of equipment
exceeded the dust’s MIE value and ignited it. With so much
sugar in the air, the MEC was also exceeded and the dust in the
air ignited explosively.
To review: in this instance, a dust with a LOW KST (sugar) was in
contact with a heat source that exceeded the MIE and ignited the
dust. Because there was a large amount of dust in the air, the
MEC was too high and the dust exploded. Secondary explosions
caused even more damage because the explosions blew dust into
the air and raised the MEC even more. For more information on
this incident, see the Chemical Safety Board’s report of the
Imperial Sugar Explosions.
While this explosion did not have a high pressure, it did create
multiple large low-pressure explosions that blew apart the
building and caused numerous deaths. A low KST does not mean
your facility is safe from combustible dust explosions.
Table 1: Key Terms and Definitions
OSHA on Combustible Dust