Dust explosion hazard in ITER: limiting oxygen concentration measurements of ITER-relevant dusts

The work aim is to support inert-gas dilution mitigation methods proposed recently to prevent accidental explosions of dusts accumulated inside the ITER vacuum vessel during the machine operation. A standard method of 20-l-sphere is used to test 4 micron graphite dust and 1 micron tungsten dust to measure their Limiting Oxygen Concentration (LOC) values, below which no self-sustained flame propagation is possible in the dust cloud at any dust concentrations. The tested dust clouds are formed inside the 20-l spherical explosion bomb in nitrogen-diluted air atmospheres at normal initial conditions. The oxygen content in the pre-explosion atmospheres is varied from normal (about 21 vol. %) down to 9 vol. %. The tested dust cloud concentrations are 150-300 g/m3 of the graphite dust and 3000 g/m3 of the tungsten dust. The dust clouds are ignited with 2, 5, or 10 kJ igniters. The dependences of maximum overpressures and maximum rates of pressure rise generated in course of the dust cloud explosions are measured as functions of oxygen content in the pre-explosion atmospheres. The maximum overpressure generated by the graphite dust clouds ignited with 2 kJ reduces from 4 bar at normal oxygen content to 0.5 bar at 17 vol. % O2. In case of a stronger 10 kJ ignition the maximum overpressure is higher 0.5 bar down to 11 vol. % oxygen. The tungsten dust ignited by 5 kJ generate 4 bar overpressure in normal air. With reducing oxygen content the overpressure decreases to 0.5 bar at 13 vol. % oxygen. However, the observed regimes of the tungsten dust explosions seem to be overdriven under the tested conditions because of too high ignition energy (5 kJ) for rather a small combustion volume (20 l). Even the value of 15 vol. % oxygen can be considered as a conservative estimate of LOC for 1 micron tungsten dust. The results obtained indicate that only a weak dilution of accidental atmosphere in ITER vacuum vessel can suppress the dust explosions in case of severe accident. (orig.)