- Author
-
Cha, S. Y.
- Title
- Development of a Deflagration Venting Expert System.
- Coporate
- Worcester Polytechnic Inst., MA
- Report
-
Thesis
May 1993
192 p.
- Keywords
-
venting
|
expert systems
|
deflagration
|
vents
|
validation
- Identifiers
- ADVENT; LEVEL 5 OBJECT; NFPA 68; VDI 3673
- Abstract
- This thesis describes the development of a deflagration venting expert system (ADVENT) for use on personal computers equipped with the Microsoft Windows operating system. ADVENT was developed using an expert system shell, LEVEL 5 OBJECT, and uses both backward chaining and forward chaining techniques provided by LEVEL 5 OBJECT. ADVENT uses primarily backward chaining process but, uses forward chaining process for data validations, input queries and range checks. ADVENT is designed to facilitate the analysis needed to size deflagration vents. ADVENT is based on two widely accepted and used venting guidelines: NFPA 68 and VDI 3673. NFPA 68 provides guidelines for sizing vent areas for enclosures containing a specific gas-air mixture or a particular dust-air mixture. VDI 3673 provide guidelines for sizing of vent areas for encosures containing a particular dust-air mixture. The guidelines provided in VDI 3673 account for heterogeneous (non-uniform) as well as homogeneous (uniform) dust concentrations. The developed software includes most of the vent sizing recommendations found in these two guidelines. ADVENT's recommendations include the required vent area (or the maximum internal pressure for a given vent area), recoil force, and length of flame generated by the venting process. ADVENT also has a database for over 650 records of gases and dusts containing important explosibility data. The graphical user interface is presented in a clear, consistent way that should benefit both inexperienced and experienced vent design engineers.