Investigation on the Explosion Characteristics of an Aluminum Dust–Diethyl Ether–Air Mixture

[Image: see text] In this work, the explosion characteristics of an aluminum (Al)–diethyl ether (DEE)–air mixture were investigated in a 20 L spherical vessel. The effect factors of the explosion characteristics considered were fuel concentration, component proportion, and ignition energy. With the increasing concentration of the mixed fuel (Al/DEE = 1:1), the maximum pressure (P(max)), the maximum rate of pressure rise ((dP/dt)(max)), and the flame propagation speed (ν(F)) exhibit an inversely “U-shaped” curve. The maximum P(max), (dP/dt)(max), and ν(F) values are 901.2 kPa, 148.3 MPa/s, and 15.3 m/s, respectively, corresponding to an optimum concentration of 600 g/m(3). The P(max), the (dP/dt)(max), and the ν(F) increase with the addition of DEE when the proportion of DEE is below 55% but have a decrease tendency when the proportion of DEE is over 55%. As the explosions of Al and DEE were mutually promoting, the studied explosion characteristics of the Al–DEE–air mixture are obviously higher than those of pure Al or DEE in air. The minimum ignition energy (MIE) of the Al–DEE–air mixture is 1.9 mJ, between the MIE of Al and DEE. With the increase of ignition energy, P(max), (dP/dt)(max), and ν(F) all increase, while the minimum explosion concentration presents a linear decreasing trend. This work could provide significant scientific evidence for evaluating the explosion risk of the Al–DEE–air mixture.