Explosion Dynamics – Fundamentals and Practical Applications

Ali S. Rangwala is a professor in the department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) (2006 - present). He has a BS in Electrical Engineering, from the Government College of Engineering, Pune, India (2000), an MS in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park (2002), and a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (2006). Professor Rangwala's research interests include problems related to industrial fire and explosion problems. He has worked on topics such as deflagration of combustible dust clouds, ignition behavior of combustible dust layers, in-situ burning of oil, spread of an oil slick in channels, velocity measuring techniques in fire induced flows, and flame propagation and burning rate behavior of condensed fuel surfaces. He is a recipient of the IAFSS best Thesis Award (2006), NSF Career award (2008) and the Sigma Xi senior faculty research award (2017). He is currently advising 6 funded graduate students (5 PhD's and 1 MS thesis). In the last 12 years, he has published over 50 journal articles and has presented in over 60 conferences. He has papers in journals such as Combustion and Flame, Combustion Theory and Modeling, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Fire Safety Journal and Fire Technology. He teaches three graduate courses: Explosion Protection, Industrial Fire Protection, and Combustion at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Department of Fire Protection Engineering.

Chapter 1: Introduction and Basic Concepts Chapter 2: Explosion Pressure Chapter 3: Pressure Rise as a Function of Time Chapter 4: Impact of Pressure on a Structure Chapter 5: Deflagrations with Dusts and Mists Chapter 6: Detonations Chapter 7: Flame Instabilities and Turbulent Flame Propagation Chapter 8: Explosion Venting Chapter 9: Explosion Suppression Chapter 10: Examples of Explosions: A Few Case Studies