Development of 20 liter spherical explosion test apparatus based on LabVIEW and OPC technique

A LabVIEW-based 20L spherical explosion test apparatus has been developed for determining explosion characteristics of combustible dusts and gases. The test system consists of 20L spherical explosion chamber and control and data acquisition (DAQ) system. The upper-level software for control and DAQ was mainly developed using LabVIEW. The control logic was realized by programmable logic controller (PLC) and a computer was connected with PLC by Ethernet. A pressure transducer and a DAQ card were used for high-speed DAQ of explosion pressure. The communication between LabVIEW application and hardware devices was realized by OPC (OLE for Process Control) technique. The developed test system has friendly graphical user interface, high-level automation and comprehensive function such as experimental process control, real-time data acquiring, data analysis, database management and report. The system was proved to be reliable and accurate in practical application.