scholarly journals The formation of charcoal reflectance and its potential use in post-fire assessments

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire M. Belcher ◽  
Victoria A. Hudspith

Charcoal has an exceptional ability to reflect light when viewed using reflectance microscopy. The amount of light reflected is variable depending on the differential ordering of graphite-like phases within the charcoal itself. It has been suggested that this relates to the temperature of formation, whereby higher formation temperatures result in high charcoal reflectance. However, this explanation is derived from oven-based chars that do not well represent the natural combustion process. Here, we have experimentally created charcoals using a cone calorimeter, in order to explore the development of charcoal reflectance during pre-ignition heating and peak heat-release rate, through to the end of flaming and the transition to char oxidation. We find that maximum charcoal reflectance is reached at the transition between pyrolysis and char oxidation, before its conversion to mineral ash, and indicates that our existing understanding of reflectance is in error. We suggest that charcoal reflectance warrants additional study as it may provide a useful quantitative addition to ground-based fire severity surveys, because it may allow exploration of surface heating after the main fire front has passed and the fire transitions to smouldering phases.

2011 ◽  
Vol 105-107 ◽  
pp. 1723-1726
Author(s):  
Wei Ma ◽  
Wen Bin Yao

According to Natural Bamboo Fiber/ Polypropylene fiber(PP) non-woven materials encountered the problem that its flame retardation is insufficient, this paper tried to add flame retardant to improve its performance, then the cone calorimeter was used to evaluate its flammability. The results show that Peak-Heat Release Rate and Smoke Release Rate etc significantly improved. In accordance with the UL94 ,the flame retardation meet the level V-0 , consistent with the requirements of enterprise.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.A. Hanna ◽  
M.A. Nour ◽  
E.R. Souaya ◽  
M.A. sherief ◽  
A.S. Abdelmoaty

AbstractFire performance of polypropylene (PP) containing different percentages of ammonium polyphosphate (APP) with montmorillonite (Mt) or treated montmorillonite (MtT) was carried out by using the cone calorimeter test (CCT). Different samples from ammonium polyphosphate and montmorillonite were mixed with 90% polypropylene. The characterization of the prepared samples indicates that there is incorporation between the components of the samples. Heat release rate (HRR), peak heat release rate (PHRR), average heat release rate (Av-HRR), and time to ignition (TTI) of the samples were obtained from the cone calorimeter test. Also, the fire performance index (FPI) and the fire growth rate (FIGRA) were calculated. The interpretation of the curves and the parameters results from the cone calorimeter test which indicates that the addition of montmorillonite to APP increases its action as a flame retardant for PP. Moreover, the samples contain acid treatment montmorillonite showed an increase in the efficiency of ammonium polyphosphate when used. This result may be due to an increase in the SiO2 content by acid treatment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenkai Zhu ◽  
Jingjing Li ◽  
Mandy Clement ◽  
Xiaosu Yi ◽  
Chris Rudd ◽  
...  

This study investigated the effect of intumescent mats (M1 and M2) with different compositions on the post-fire performance of carbon fibre reinforced composites. The sandwich structure was designed for composites where M1 (carbon fibre reinforced composite-M1) or M2 (carbon fibre reinforced composite-M2) mats were covered on the composite surface. A significant reduction in the peak heat release rate and total heat release was observed from the cone calorimetric data, and carbon fibre reinforced composite-M1 showed the lowest value of 148 kW/m2 and 29 MJ/m2 for peak heat release rate and total heat release, respectively. In addition, a minor influence on mechanical properties was observed due to the variation of composite thickness and resin volume in the composite. The post-fire properties of composite were characterised, and the M1 mat presented better retention of flexural strength and modulus. The feasibility of two-layer model was confirmed to predict the post-fire performance of composites and reduce the reliance on the large amounts of empirical data.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 800 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. M. Moinuddin ◽  
D. Sutherland ◽  
W. Mell

Grid-independent rate of spread results from a physics-based simulation are presented. Previously, such a numerical benchmark has been elusive owing to computational restrictions. The grid-converged results are used to systematically construct correlations between the rate of spread (RoS) and both wind speed and grass height, separately. The RoS obtained from the physics-based model is found to be linear with wind speed in the parameter range considered. When wind speed is varied, the physics-based model predicts faster RoS than the Mk III and V (McArthur) models (Noble et al. 1980) but slower than the CSIRO model (Cheney et al. 1998). When the grass height is varied keeping the bulk density constant, the fire front changes from a boundary layer flame mode to plume flame mode as the grass height increases. Once the fires are in plume mode, a higher grass height results in a larger heat release rate of the fire but a slower RoS.


Author(s):  
Ji Zhang ◽  
Tiegang Fang

The research on the spray combustion of diesel and biodiesel is vital to the understanding of emission formation and optimal utilization of fuel. This paper studies the biodiesel and diesel spray combustion in a constant volume chamber under different simulated diesel engine conditions. The ambient temperature at fuel injection varied from 800K to 1200K, while the ambient oxygen concentration was maintained at 21%. Simultaneous high speed imaging of OH* chemiluminescence and flame luminosity was employed to visualize the whole combustion process. Heat release rate was analyzed based on the measured combustion pressure. The apparent heat release rate analysis shows that biodiesel has a shorter ignition delay time than diesel, and biodiesel has a smaller cumulative heat release value due to its lower heating value. The overlaying image of OH* chemiluminescence and flame luminosity clearly identifies the high temperature reaction regions and soot formation regions. The line-of-sight images agree with the published observation that the hydroxyl radical is formed on the lean side of the flame edge. Decreasing ambient temperature greatly reduces the OH* chemiluminescence intensity of the diesel combustion, while the impact is smoother and milder for biodiesel combustion. Biodiesel shows a significantly lower level of flame luminosity than diesel under all conditions. These combined observations lead to a speculation that the soot oxidation process may serve as an important contributor to OH* chemiluminescence intensity for late stage combustion, and biodiesel shows a tendency to produce less soot than diesel under the investigated conditions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 1269-1272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Yi ◽  
Jie Chen

The aim of this work is to study the burning characteristics of coach fire. With application of computational fluid dynamics (FDS software package), coach fires caused by arson are simulated under different ventilation conditions. Variation of heat release rate (HRR) and distribution of temperature are analyzed. Peak heat release rate of coach fire caused by arson in passenger carriage can reach about 24 MW and maximum temperature in the carriage is over 1000 °C. Results of this study can be referred for fire protection and rescue design of coach.


2013 ◽  
Vol 726-731 ◽  
pp. 4280-4287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jozef Martinka ◽  
Emília Hroncová ◽  
Tomáš Chrebet ◽  
Karol Balog

This article deals with comparison of the behaviour of spruce wood and polyolefins (polyethylene PE and polypropylene PP) during the test on the cone calorimeter. Samples were tested on the cone calorimeter at heat flux of 20 and 40 kW/m2. An evaluation of the behaviour of examined materials was based on the determination of the maximum and the average heat release rate, yield of carbon monoxide (CO), and relative comparison of tendency to fire propagation in a flashover phase. The tendency of materials to fire propagation in the flashover phase was evaluated based on the Pearson ́s correlation, the Spearman ́s correlation and the Kendall ́s correlation coefficient of HRR-CO and CO2-CO. Spruce wood showed better properties in comparison with PE and PP in all evaluated parameters (the maximum and the average heat release rate, the yield of CO, and also the resistance to fire propagation in the flashover phase. Additionally, spruce wood showed significantly lower sensitivity of dependence of the maximum and also the average heat release rate on external heat flux.


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