Flame Size, Heat Release and Smoke Points in Materials Flammability
Flame Size, Heat Release and Smoke Points in Materials
Flammability
(311 K)
Linteris, G. T.; Rafferty, I. P.
Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 43, No. 6, 442-450, August
2008.
Keywords:
material flammability; flame size; heat release rate;
smoke point; cone calorimeters; methane; propane;
ethylene; propylene; experiments; laminar flames; flame
height; polymers
Abstract:
The concept of using the flame size as a surrogate for
heat release rate (HRR) has been explored. A technique
for simultaneously obtaining the HRR, flame size (height
and area), and the smoke point of the flame solely from
visual images has been developed. The technique has been
demonstrated on gaseous flames (methane, propane,
ethylene, and propylene) and explored for five burning
solid polymers. Estimations of the flame area from
images of the stoichiometric contour based on the CH
chemiluminescent region of the flames yielded a good
linear correlation with measured HRR, valid for all of
the gaseous and solid compounds tested, for burning
rates above or below the smoke point. In contrast, flame
heights and luminous images (i.e., from soot emission)
were confounded by differing behavior above and below
the smoke point.
