This paper first addresses the question: what is a dust explosion? Afterwards, some specific issues are briefly reviewed: materials that can give dust explosions, factors influencing ignitability and explosibility of dust clouds, the combustion of dust clouds in air, ignition sources that can initiate dust explosions, primary and secondary dust explosions, dust flash fires, explosions of “hybrid mixtures”, and detonation of dust clouds. Subsequently, measures for dust explosion prevention and mitigation are reviewed. The next section presents the case history of an industrial dust explosion catastrophe in China in 2014. In the final section, a brief review is given of some current research issues that are related to the prevention and mitigation of dust explosions. There is a constant need for further research and development in all the areas elucidated in the paper.

Constructing ingenious microstructures, such as core–shell, laminate, microcapsule and porous microstructures, is an efficient strategy for tuning the combustion behaviors and thermal stability of energetic materials (EMs). Electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA), which includes electrospray and electrospinning, is a facile and versatile technique that can be used to process bulk materials into particles, fibers, films and three-dimensional (3D) structures with nanoscale feature sizes. However, the application of EHDA in preparing EMs is still in its initial development. This review summarizes the progress of research on EMs prepared by EHDA over the last decade. The morphology and internal structure of the produced materials can be easily altered by varying the operation and precursor parameters. The prepared EMs composed of zero-dimensional (0D) particles, one-dimensional (1D) fibers and two-dimensional (2D) films possess precise microstructures with large surface areas, uniformly dispersed components and narrow size distributions and show superior energy release rates and combustion performances. We also explore the reasons why the fabrication of 3D EM structures by EHDA is still lacking. Finally, we discuss development challenges that impede this field from moving out of the laboratory and into practical application.

Thermal behavior and fire reaction properties of aerial glass fiber (GF)/bismaleimide (BMI) composites were tested using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), thermogravimetric coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR), cone calorimeter, limiting oxygen index, and smoke density chamber. The results showed that the pyrolysis process was one stage in a nitrogen atmosphere with the prominent volatile components of CO₂, H₂O, CH₄, NO_x, and SO₂. The release of heat and smoke increased with the increase in heat flux, while the time required to reach hazardous conditions decreased. The limiting oxygen index decreased monotonically from 47.8% to 39.0% with increasing experimental temperature. The maximum specific optical density within 20 min in the non-flaming mode was greater than that in the flaming mode. According to the four kinds of fire hazard assessment indicators, the greater the heat flux, the higher the fire hazard, for the contribution of more decomposed components. The calculations of two indices confirmed that the smoke release in the early stage of fire was more negative under flaming mode. This work can provide a comprehensive understanding of the thermal and fire characteristics of GF/BMI composites used for aircraft.

With the accelerated application of lithium-ion batteries, the design and optimization of their safety features have become increasingly important. However, the mechanisms by which different safety vent bursting pressures affect thermal runaway and its product compositions remain unclear. This study comparatively investigates the effects of safety vent bursting pressures of 1 MPa, 2 MPa, and 3 MPa on thermal runaway characteristics and product compositions. The results indicate that, under these three conditions, the safety vent bursts at approximately 800 s, 1000 s, and 1300 s after heating begins, with gas volumes of 5.3 L, 6.1 L, and 6.5 L, respectively. Additionally, higher bursting pressures lead to increased H₂ production during thermal runaway. The characterization of solid product compositions reveals that the aluminum current collector participates in internal thermal runaway reactions, resulting in substances such as LiAlO₂ or metallic Al in the solid products under different bursting pressures. This study provides important references for improving existing battery safety standards and optimizing battery safety designs. It also provides insights and references for metal recovery from batteries and investigations into battery fires.

In the present study, the effect of hydrogen addition on turbulent flame propagation characteristics is investigated in a fan-stirred combustion chamber. The turbulent burning velocities of methane/hydrogen mixture are determined over a wide range of hydrogen fractions, and four classical unified scaling models (the Zimont model, Gulder model, Schmidt model, and Peters model) are evaluated by the experimental data. The acceleration onset, cellular structure, and acceleration exponent of turbulent expanding flames are determined, and an empirical model of turbulent flame acceleration is proposed. The results indicate that turbulent burning velocity increases nonlinearly with the hydrogen addition, which is similar to that of laminar burning velocity. Turbulent flame acceleration weakens with the hydrogen addition, which is different from that of laminar flame acceleration. Turbulent flame acceleration is dominated by turbulent stretch, and flame intrinsic instability is negligible. Turbulent stretch reduces with hydrogen addition, because the interaction duration between turbulent vortexes and flamelets is shortened. The relative data and conclusions can provide useful reference for the model optimization and risk assessment of hydrogen-enriched gas explosion.