Large scale grain dust explosions-research in Poland

For the last five years grain dust explosion research was carried out in surface and underground facilities of Experimental Mine “Barbara” Research was focused on problems of evaluation critical dust parameters influencing explosion course, explosion development and suppression by both passive and active means. The main conclusions are as follows: nominal dust concentration needed to obtain flame propagation must be higher than 50 g/m³, for nominal concentrations higher than 100 g/m³ flame acceleration is observed and detonation is possible; strong grain dust explosions can be effectively suppressed with passive water barriers whereas for weak ones active barries must be used.