237 - Fire Fundamentals pt. 18 - Explosions with Ali Rangwala and Lorenz Boeck

Welcome back to Fire Fundamentals! Today with prof. Ali Rangwala from WPI and dr Lorenz Boeck from Rembe and WPI we take the world of explosion protection engineering.

In this episode we touch:

• distinguishing fires and explosions by time scale and damage mode
• taxonomy of explosions by energy density and deposition time
• hybrid mixtures in coal mines and turbulent burning velocity
• severity metrics for gases and dust deflagration index for reactivity
• explosion sphere testing, ignition positioning, and model limits
• ignition sensitivity minimum ignition energy and hot surface risks
• prevention via ventilation, inerting, and ignition control
• protection through deflagration vents, isolation, and external hazards
• pressure vessel bursts, inspections, and rupture disks
• transport scenarios vapor clouds and BLEVEs with fireball correlations

We also delve into future directions for explosion research:

• emerging risks hydrogen, BESS, ammonia, and layered defenses
• space and microgravity impacts on dust and flammability

Check out the XPE programme at WPI, and find more informations on how to enroll at: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/study/master-science-explosion-protection-engineering

I have also received some good listening material, that you could follow up with:

• A podcast done by Ali's PhD student, Hannah Murray and Prof. Stephen Kmiotek who is the co director of XPE. This was done by WPI and the link is : https://www.wpi.edu/listen/wpi-podcast/e18-explosion-protection-engineering-hannah-murray-explosion-protection-engineering-phd-candidate
• There is one more podcast that was more focused on dust explosions. This was done by Dust Safety Science, by Chris Cloney and also explains the program. In this its Prof. Kmiotek and Ali: https://dustsafetyscience.com/explosion-protection-engineering-program/

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