The risk assessment requires the knowledge of dust explosion hazard data. Maximum rate of pressure rise is an important parameter of explosion severity characteristics. Its accuracy depends on the experimental conditions and the approach determining maximum rate of pressure rise. Previous method determining maximum rate of pressure rise is to draw a tangent on pressure time history profile and the tangent is approximated maximum rate of pressure rise, which has a poor repeatability and great error. This paper presents a new method used to calculate the rate of pressure rise for dust explosion which is called Recursive Fitting Method (RFM). Compared with previous methods, this new method (RFM) has better repeatability and higher accuracy. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.