The decision was made to base the design on the most likely culprit, which was CO, as mentioned above. In order to meet the schedule, the permissible time for each phase was worked backwards to allow time for fabrication and shop drawing preparation and design drawings.
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The installation of the new Spark Box was to be made during the regular August shut down. The client purchased a new gas sampling system that could sample fast enough that it might capture the fluctuations in the gas content when a deflagration occurred, but it would not be operational for several months. This is a different phenomenon than an "explosion", which is the ignition of an explosive material, which in turn is a material that already contains both the combustible substance and the oxygenating agent within itself.ĭue to the time constraints, the design had to proceed without definitive input information. The phenomena that was occurring was a "deflagration", which is a rapidly burning flame front passing through a mixture of a combustible material, either gas or dust, and air. The methodology to be used was the procedures contained in NFPA 68, "Guide for Venting Deflagrations".
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The proposed solution, which was acceptable to the client, was to design a new Spark Arrestor Box with doors which would open to relieve the overpressure before the box would be damaged. There was a possibility that the ingredient responsible for producing the explosive gases was Direct Reduced Iron.The ingredients for a given grade can also vary depending on the current cost of the raw material. The composition of the gases varies depending on the ingredients used to produce the desired grade of steel.Two possible candidates for the combustible gas responsible for the explosions were carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen, both of which are by-products of the steel making process.There are many impurities on the scrap steel which produce combustible gases.
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