DUST AS A RISK FACTOR

As with combustible fluids and the explosive gas-air mixtures that are formed by these, so too must certain conditions exist for combustible dusts in order to ensure that a dust-air mixture is not ignited by a suitable source of ignition and thus an explosion triggered as a result. However, in comparison to gas explosions, dust explosions take a different course and, under certain circumstances, can have significantly more serious consequences. This is because the resulting wave of pressure causes further layers of dust to be stirred up, which then in turn ignite. This process continues and, in unfavourable circumstances, these type of chain reactions move through all parts of the plants or even through an entire building, destroying it.