- Author
- Kashiwagi, T. | Ohlemiller, T. J. | Atreya, A.
- Title
- Effects of External Radiant Flux and Ambient Oxygen Concentration on Gasification Rates and Evolved Products of White Pine.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- UJNR Panel on Fire Research and Safety. 8th Joint Panel Meeting. May 13-21, 1985., Tsukuba, Japan, 1987
- Keywords
- wood | oxygen concentration
- Identifiers
- ignition and flame spread
- Abstract
- Wood has long been a major material for building construction; it constitutes a substantial fraction of the fuel load in residential dwellings. Therefore, to analyze fires in dwellings, it is important to understand how wood behaves in a fire environment. Of particular interest are factors which control the rate of wood gasification under transient heating such as occurs in the initial stages of fire growth (both in ignition and in flame spread over a wood surface). Such controlling factors are the radiant flux and ambient oxygen concentrations; radiative heat transfer is the primary mode of energy transfer to a fuel surface in a developing room fire. The oxygen level can vary substantially in a ventilation-controlled room fire. A proper understanding of the rate of wood gasification in such a fire environment is essential to the mathematical prediction of fire growth over a wood surface.