Prevention criteria of electrostatic ignition by a charged cloud in grounded tanks

In this paper, we present the criteria of space charge density and wall electric field required to prevent incendive discharges between a grounded protrusion and a charged cloud in cylindrical tanks grounded of up to ≈1.5 × 10⁵ m³ in volume obtained by numerical investigations with wide ranges in the dimensions of the protrusions and tanks. To obtain such criteria, the thresholds of the charge densities of uniformly charged clouds for initiating a discharge at the tip of protrusions are numerically obtained. Furthermore, the transferred charges and energies of the discharges are estimated to investigate their incendivity. For evaluating the risk with a field measurement, the criterion of the electric fields at the side wall of the tanks for avoiding incendive discharges is also obtained.