title: A means to estimate thermal and kinetic parameters of coal dust layer from hot surface ignition tests.
abstract: A method to estimate thermal and kinetic parameters of Pittsburgh seam coal subject to thermal runaway is presented using the standard ASTM E 2021 hot surface ignition test apparatus. Parameters include thermal conductivity (k), activation energy (E), coupled term (QA) of heat of reaction (Q) and pre-exponential factor (A) which are required, but rarely known input values to determine the thermal runaway propensity of a dust material. Four different dust layer thicknesses: 6.4, 12.7, 19.1 and 25.4mm, are tested, and among them, a single steady state dust layer temperature profile of 12.7 mm thick dust layer is used to estimate k, E and QA. k is calculated by equating heat flux from the hot surface layer and heat loss rate on the boundary assuming negligible heat generation in the coal dust layer at a low hot surface temperature. E and QA are calculated by optimizing a numerically estimated steady state dust layer temperature distribution to the experimentally obtained temperature profile of a 12.7 mm thick dust layer. Two unknowns, E and QA, are reduced to one from the correlation of E and QA obtained at criticality of thermal runaway. The estimated k is 0.1 W/mK matching the previously reported value. E ranges from 61.7 to 83.1 kJ/mol, and the corresponding QA ranges from 1.7 x 10(9) to 4.8 x 10(11)J/kg s. The mean values of E (72.4 kJ/mol) and QA (2.8 x 10(10)J/kg s) are used to predict the critical hot surface temperatures for other thicknesses, and good agreement is observed between measured and experimental values. Also, the estimated E and QA ranges match the corresponding ranges calculated from the multiple tests method and values reported in previous research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fire Protection Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, United States.
authors.forename: Haejun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Ali S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Rangwala
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Dembsey
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003031:Coal; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007700:Kinetics; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D003031:Coal; D004391:Dust