INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES AS IGNITION SOURCE IN EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERES

The current revision of the European Standard series EN 1834-1/-2/-3 under ISO/IEC leadership gives the opportunity to enhance requirements due to prevent the accidents (DEEP WATER HORIZON) and current state of the art, taking into account recent technologies and eco-design regarding exhaust emission. It is very interesting to understand what are the major changes and which important topics are still under discussion today regarding the future Standard ISO/IEC 80079-41. An interesting investigation is about the turbocharger (or other air boosting devices) safety implication on internal maximum pressure related to the non-propagation (flame) tests. Turbocharged engines increase the internal combustion engine's efficiency and power output by forcing extra air into the combustion chamber. This improvement over a naturally aspirated engine's power output is due to the fact that the compressor can force more air (and proportionately more fuel) into the combustion chamber than atmospheric pressure alone. It will be showed the result of the explosion tests made on the inlet flame path of turbocharged Internal Combustion (IC) Engine, according to the present Standard EN1834-1 and the future Standard ISO/IEC 80079-41