- Author
- Pitts, W. M.
- Title
- Application of Thermodynamic and Detailed Chemical Kinetic Modeling to Understanding Combustion Product Generation in Enclosure Fires.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 23, 271-303, 1994
- Keywords
- enclosures | thermodynamics | reaction kinetics | combustion products | experiments | global equivalence ratio
- Identifiers
- hood experiments and the global equivalence ratio (GER) concept; detailed chemical-kinetic modeling of expected upper-layer reaction behavior; conditions where the GER concept is appropriate for pending CO formation in enclosure fires; conditions where the GER concept is inappropriate for predicting CO formation in enclosure fires
- Abstract
- Experiments in idealized two-layer fire environments have demonstrated that concentrations of carbon monoxide and other gaseous combustion products can be correlated in terms of the global eqivalence ratio. In this paper the results of detailed chemical kinetic modeling and equilibrium calculations are used to gain insight into the chemical stability of the gases observed within the upper layers of such fires. It is demonstrated that the production of upper-layer gases kinetically controlled and that for rich conditions concentrations of the upper-layer gas components are far from those expected for thermodynamic equilibrium at the layer temperatures. Criteria are provided for determining whether or not the correlations can be employed to predict the generation of combustion products in enclosure fires.