- Author
- Hunter, L. W. | Grunfelder, C. | Hoshall, C. H. | Fristrom, R. M.
- Title
- Combustion of Polyvinyl Chloride Studied by a Low pressure Moving Wire Technique. Topical Report. Running Title: The Moving Wire Technique.
- Coporate
- Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NBS-GRANT-G7-9016
- Keywords
- moving wire apparatus | combustion | polyvinyl chloride | low pressure | steady state
- Abstract
- The low pressure moving wire technique (MWT) provides a means of achieving steady state polymer combustion. For charring polymers, the steady state is not controlled by the rate of char combustion, as is the case for the opposed flow diffusion flame technique. At low pressure, the polymer flame is expanded to a size which is convenient for microprobe sampling. It is then possible to identify the flammable gases evolving under actual combustion conditions, thereby avoiding the common extrapolation from nonflame pyrolysis studies. As a demonstration of the technique, we made measurements of the structure of a polyvinyl chloride flame at reduced pressure 0.1 bar. The material evolving from the burning polymer was estimated by by ≅0.4% benzene and ≅14% pentene isomers (and/or butenal). Butene isomers (and/or propenal) and lower molecular weight species accounted for the remainder. The total mass flux from the burning surface was 0.17 kg m-2s-1. The surface temperature at ignition was ≅660K.