Effects of low atmospheric pressure on combustion characteristics of polyethylene and polymethyl methacrylate

Abstract

Combustion characteristics of polymers are affected significantly by low atmospheric pressure and oxygen concentration at high altitude. In this study, vertical downward experiments aimed at investigating these characteristics, including mass loss rate (burning rate), flame temperature, flame spread rate, and flame height for polyethylene and polymethyl methacrylate having different thicknesses were conducted at elevations of 2295 m (77.4 kPa) in Xining and 29.5 m (101.8 kPa) in Hefei, China. Experimental results showed that mass loss rate and flame temperature are proportional to the ambient pressure. Power-law progressions of flame height and flame spread rate to pressure were produced, and linear relationships between the exponents and thickness of samples were obtained. The influence of ambient pressure and thickness on flame height is similar to that on flame spread rate for polymethyl methacrylate.

Keywords

polymers ambient pressure combustion thickness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Zhang

Shields

Silcock

GWH

. Effect of melting behaviour on upward flame spread of thermoplastics. Fire Mater 1997; 21: 1–6.

Di Blasi

. Transition between regimes in the degradation of thermoplastic polymers. Polym Degrad Stab 1999; 64: 359–367.

Lyon

Takemori

Safronava

. A molecular basis for polymer flammability. Polymer 2009; 50: 2608–2617.

Chee

KK.

Correlation between heat of combustion and chemical structure of polymers. Polymer 1993; 34: 3870–3872.

Vorob’ev

Bychikhina

Bazenkovw

. Limiting rates of combustion of polymer. Polymer Sci 1984; 26: 2440–2445.

Kashiwagi

. Polymer combustion and flammability-role of the condensed phase. Symp (Int) Combust 1994; 25: 1423–1437.

Holve

Sawyer

. Diffusion controlled combustion of polymers. Symp (Int) Combust 1975; 15: 351–361.

Waibel

Essenhigh

. Combustion of thermoplastic polymer particles in various oxygen atmospheres: comparison of theory and experiment. Symp (Int) Combust 1973; 14: 1413–1420.

Blazowski

Cole

McAlevy

. Linear pyrolysis of various polymer under combustion conditions. Symp (Int) Combust 1973; 14: 1177–1186.

10.

Tewarson

Jiang

Morikawa

. Ventilation-controlled combustion of polymers. Combust Flame 1993; 95: 151–169.

11.

Gibow

Abdikarimov

Zhubanov

. The role of convected thermal energy and oxygen in the flame during the combustion of polymers. Polymer Sci 1978; 20: 3013–3020.

12.

Hopkins

Jr Quintiere

. Material fire properties and predictions for thermoplastics. Fire Saf J 1996; 26: 241–268.

13.

Zhang

Wang

. Study on melting behavior of polymers during burning. In: Fire safety science: proceedings of the eighth international symposium, international association for fire safety science. September 18-23, 2005, Beijing, China, Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA, Gottuk

D. T.

Lattimer

B. Y.

, Editor(s) 2005, pp.637–646.

14.

Butler

. A mixed layer pyrolysis model for polypropylene. In: Fire safety science: proceedings of the sixth international symposium, international association for fire safety science, 5–9 July, 1999, Poitiers, France, Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA, Curtat

, Editor(s) 1999, pp.313–324.

15.

Stoliarov

Crowley

Lyon

. Prediction of the burning rates of non-charring polymers. Combust Flame 2009; 156: 1068–1083.

16.

Delichatsios

. Upward flame spread and critical conditions for PE/PVC cables in a tray configuration. In: Fire safety science: proceedings of the fourth international symposium, international association for fire safety science. July 13–17, 1994, Ottawa, Canada, Intl. Assoc. for Fire Safety Science, Boston, MA, Kashiwagi

, Editor(s) 1994, pp.433–444.

17.

Ndubizu

Ananth

Tatem

. Transient burning rate of a noncharring plate under a forced flow boundary layer flame. Combust Flame 2005; 141: 131–148.

18.

Xie

Zhang

. Experimental study on melting and flowing behavior of thermoplastics combustion based on a new setup with a T-shape trough. J Hazard Mater 2009; 166: 1321–1325.

19.

Pizzo

Consalvi

Porterie

. A transient pyrolysis model based on the B-number for gravity-assisted flame spread over thick PMMA slabs. Combust Flame 2009; 156: 1856–1859.

20.

Oñate

Rossi

Idelsohn

. Prediction of melt flow and spread of thermoplastic objects with the particle finite element method. In: Fire safety science: Proceedings of the ninth international symposium, international association for fire safety science. September 21–26, 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany, Boston, MA, Karlsson, Editor(s) 2009, pp.291–302.

21.

Idelsohn

Oñate

Del Pin

. A Lagrangian meshless finite element method applied to fluid-structure interaction problems. Comput Struct 2003; 81:655–671.

22.

Butler

Ohlemiller

Linteris

. A progress report on numerical modeling of experimental polymer melt flow behavior. In: International interflam conference, 10th proceedings. July 5–7, 2004. Organised by Interscience Communications Ltd. in association with National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building Research Establishment; National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire Protection Engineers; and Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland, Interscience Communications Ltd., London, England, 2004, pp.937–948.

23.

Butler

Oñate

Idelsohn

. Modeling polymer melt flow using the particle finite element method. In: International interflam conference, 11th proceedings. September 3-5, 2007, London, England, 2007, pp.929–940.

24.

Butler

. A model of melting and dripping thermoplastic objects in fire. In: Proceedings of the fire and materials—11th international conference. Organised by Interscience Communications Limited. 26-28 January, Interscience Communications Limited, San Francisco, CA, London, England, 2009, pp.341–352.

25.

Darabkhani

Bassi

Huang

. Fuel effects on diffusion flames at elevated pressures. Fuel 2009; 88: 264–271.

26.

McAllister

Fernandez-Pello

Urban

. The combined effect of pressure and oxygen concentration on piloted ignition of a solid combustible. Combust Flame 2010; 157: 1753–1759.

27.

Wieser

Jauch

WiUi

. The influence of high altitude on fire detector test fires. Fire Saf J 1997; 29: 195–204.

28.

Kleinhenz

Feier

Hsu

S-Y

. Pressure modeling of upward flame spread and burning rates over solids in partial gravity. Combust Flame 2008; 154: 637–643.

29.

Jun

C-Y

Ran

. The influence of low atmospheric pressure on carbon monoxide of n-heptane pool fires. J Hazard Mater 2008; 154: 476–483.

30.

Fang

Guan

. Influence of low air pressure on combustion characteristics and flame pulsation frequency of pool fires. Fuel 2011; 90: 2760–2766.

31.

Zhang

. Combustion characteristics of n-heptane and wood crib fires at different altitudes. Proc Combust Inst 2009; 32: 2481–2488.

32.

De Ris

Heskestad

. Radiation fire modeling. Proc Combust Inst 2000; 28: 2751–2759.

33.

Chen

Z-B

L-H

Huo

. Flame height characteristics based on Image luminance. J Combust Sci Technol 2008; 14: 557–561.

34.

Amell

. Influence of altitude on the height of blue cone in a premixed flame. Appl Therm Eng 2007; 27: 408–412.

35.

Most

J-M

Philippe

Jie

. Influence of gravity and pressure on pool fire-type diffusion flames. In: Twenty-sixth symposium (international) on combustion/the combustion institute. July 28-August 2, 1996, Napoli, Italy. organised by the Combustion Institute. Combustion Institute. Pittsburgh, PA, 1996, pp.1311–1317.

36.

Hottel

. Use of models in fire research. NAS-NRC Publication Washington, DC No. 786, 1961, p.32.

37.

Williams

. Scaling mass fires. Fire Res Abst Rev 1969; 11: 1.

38.

Bhattachariee

King

Takahashi

. Downward flame spread over poly(methyl)methacrylate. Proc Combust Inst 2000; 28: 2891–2897.