Preliminary development of a dust explosion equipment for time-resolved SAXS experiment with synchrotron radiation.

Dust explosion is short-lived, but dangerous. Time-resolved small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) with synchrotron radiation is an effective method to study the microscopic dynamics of dust explosion, but it needs high beam flux, fast detector and appropriate explosion equipment. The pink beam SAXS beamline at the upcoming high energy photon source (HEPS in Beijing, China) will possess high beam flux as 1015 phs/s and equip new advanced fast integral detector, which will provide ideal conditions for time-resolved experiment. This study aims to preliminarily develop an explosion equipment to integrate into the SAXS instrument at HEPS in the early future. The main body of the equipment is a 20 L Siwek sphere (spherical shell) of stainless steel to serve as the chamber for dust explosion. The sphere has a pair of single crystal diamond windows that are used to horizontally pass synchrotron radiation X-rays with the beam path slightly below the centre of the sphere. The powder is sprayed from bottom into chamber of the sphere and ignited by the ignition rods extending from the top to the centre of the sphere. A corresponding control system is used to conveniently integrate and logically control the dust explosion and the corresponding SAXS signals collection. The feasibility and safety of the system have been verified at the 1W2B experimental station at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]