- Author
-
Chen, Y.
|
Tewari, S. S.
|
Sibulkin, M.
- Title
- Comparison of Experimental and Theoretical Pyrolysis Results for a Charring Fuel.
- Coporate
- Brown Univ., Providence, RI
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
Session B-3,
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-NB60NANB6D0629
NIST-GRANT-60NANB8D0851
- Book or Conf
- Combustion Institute/Eastern States Section. Chemical and Physical Processes in Combustion. Fall Technical Meeting, 1990. December 3-5, 1990,
Orlando, FL,
66/1-4 p.,
1990
- Keywords
-
combustion
|
pyrolysis
|
metal combustion
|
catalytic combustion
|
fuels
|
charring
|
cellulose
|
pyrolysis rate
|
fire retardants
|
dimensional stability
|
fuel cells
- Identifiers
- nitrogen atmosphere
- Abstract
- A comparison of experimental and theoretical pyrolysis results is made for a charring fuel(cellulose). Cellulose was chosen as the charring fuel for the study because of its dimensional stability during combustion and the reproducibility of the results obtained. Cellulose pyrolysis was studied because of its importance in fire research and cellulosic material utilization. It has been revealed by the existing literature that most research on the pyrolysis of cellulosic materials is primarily concerned with details of the chemical processes which occur as the materials are heated. For this type of work, the typical sample is a powdered material weighting on the order of milligrams. Although detailed chemical studies are necessary to obtain workable pyrolysis mechanisms, they are of little help in the actual design of a flame resistant material. In this paper, we report on an experimental study of pyrolysis of pure and fire retarded bulk cellulose in a nitrogen atmosphere, with sodium hydroxide as a fire retardant. Concurrently, a numerical analysis of one-dimensional pyrolysis is presented. The experimental and theoretical pyrolysis results, primarily the pyrolysis rate, are compared under the same radiant heat flux which simulates the real flaming combustion situation. The comparison shows that experimental results agree qualitatively with theoretical results. The comparison is useful in determining the physical mechanism by which solid phase fire retardants act to suppress flaming combustion, which will help to provide a rational basis for the design of materials with improved fire safety characteristics.