Abstract
The ignitability(minimum ignition energy, MIE) of a suspended dust clouds is very important aspect of technical safety indices. This paper reported the experimental results dealing with the influence of discharge circuit on the MIE of a suspended dust clouds. The movement of a suspended dust clouds was also observed with the high speed camera. The Hartmann vertical-tube apparatus(MIKE-3) described in the international standard of IEC and Polypropylene (PP, 50% volume-average, D50: $761{\mu}m$) resin powders were used in this experiment. The following results were obtained: (1) the MIE of a suspended PP powder depended markedly on the discharge circuit; in other words, when a resistor was connected in series with the discharge sparking circuit(RC), the lowest value(31mJ) of MIE was obtained for a suspended PP powder comparison with the other circuits(C circuit; 370mJ or LC circuit; 71mJ). (2) the discharge duration time is more important than other factors with regard to MIE of a suspended PP powder.