Brian Hughes

A little bit of background- some blokes of a certain age play golf in their spare time, I make charcoal. And I run my Land Rover on it. To understand how I do it, watch this video:

https://www.youtube....h?v=yL79ci4TH7k

Using a scaled up version of this setup, I've had about 8 20-30 minute test runs on my Land Rover.

And one explosion.

This scared the living daylights out of me, the good luck was nobody getting hurt, the good judgement was stopping gasifier runs until I've redesigned the system to mitigate the possibility and consequences of an explosion. The thing is, I want to be able to induce a controlled explosion to reassure myself, and skeptical H&S inspectors that the risks are managed.

My questions are: would pyrotechnic squibs (solid fuel and oxidant) accurately simulate the effects of a gas and air explosion, or are the characteristics of the explosion (speed, temperature and other factors) too different for a good comparison?

Can low power squibs be purchased and stored legally? I'm obviously new to this.

And can anyone point to any "up to speed" reading on the nature and theory of explosions?

Thanks for any help.