- Author
- Kashiwagi, T. | Ohlemiller, T. J. | Werner, K.
- Title
- Effects of External Radiant Flux and Ambient Oxygen Concentration on Nonflaming Gasification Rates and Evolved Products of White Pine.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Combustion and Flame, Vol. 69, No. 3, 331-345, September 1987
- Keywords
- wood | inert atmosphere | burning rate | oxygen concentration | char depth
- Identifiers
- burning rate
- Abstract
- Time-dependent gasification mass flux, sample temperatures, and evolved products (CO, CO2, H2O and total hydrocarbons) of thermally thick white pine (approximately 3.8 cm cubes) were measured under the nonflaming condition at thermal radiant fluxes of 2.5-6.9 W/cm(2) in three different atmospheres of N2, 10.5% O2/89.5% N2, and air. Results indicate that ambient oxygen significantly increases the gasification mass flux (for example, at 2.5W/cm(2), the mass flux in air increases about three times over the mass flux in nnitrogen), sample temperatures (surface temperature in air increases as much as 200 deg C over that in nitrogen), and char depth, and changes the evolved products distribution (CO2 yields in air are about 6-8 times larger than that in nitrogen and CO yields in air are about twice as large as that in nitrogen). Therefore, extreme care is needed to apply results obtained in an inert atmosphere to cases, such as ignition, flame spread, and smoldering, in which a wood sample is exposed to oxygen containing atmospheres.