On Thursday, December 7th, as part of the ATEX training, we checked how sugar dust explodes – you can see the effects on the video below
The system consists of two tanks with the dimensions of 37x37x37 cm (V=50 l) connected by a duct. Both chambers contain a small amount of sugar dust, which is excited by air blowing. When the cloud comes into contact with a hot surface (heated rod in the right chamber), the system combusts and explodes. Pressure and fire penetrate into the left tank, where a secondary explosion occurs. Both tanks are protected by “decompression panels” made of a layer of aluminium and paper, which have burst, allowing the effects of explosion (pressure, fire) to escape into the atmosphere. Despite the fact that the scale of the test was microscopic (compared to industrial conditions), the flames reached several meters, and the participants of the presentation clearly felt a wave of pressure and heat.
