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Flame Size, Heat Release, and Smoke Points in Materials Flammability

Published

Author(s)

Gregory T. Linteris, I P. Rafferty

Abstract

The concept of using the flame size as a surrogate for heat release rate has been explored. A technique for simultaneously obtaining the heat release rate, flame size (height and area), and the smoke point of the flame solely from visual images has been developed. The technique has been demonstrated on gaseous flames (methane, propane, ethylene, and propylene) and five burning solid polymers. Estimations of the flame area from images of the stoichiometric contour based on the CH chemiluminescent region of the flames yielded a good linear correlation with measured heat release rate, valid for all of the gaseous and solid compounds tested, for burning rates above or below the smoke point. In contrast, flame heights and luminous images (i.e., from soot emission) were confounded by differing behavior above and below the smoke point.
Citation
Fire Safety Journal

Keywords

cone calorimeter, flame size, heat release, materials flammability, smoke point

Citation

Linteris, G. and Rafferty, I. (2008), Flame Size, Heat Release, and Smoke Points in Materials Flammability, Fire Safety Journal, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=861454 (Accessed April 18, 2024)
Created August 1, 2008, Updated February 19, 2017