Reference Verification Fluids for Flash Point Determination

Published

November 1, 1999

Author(s)

R G. Montemayor, J E. Rogerson, Jennifer C. Colbert, Susannah B. Schiller

Abstract

The flash point of a liquid material is used to classify whether the material is flammable or combustible. 1,4-dimethylbenzene (p-xylene) has been used historically to verify the proper operation of different flash point test equipment. Because of the toxicity and low flash point value of 1,4-dimethylbenzene, and interlaboratory study was conducted to determine alternate flash point reference standards. This study reports the flash points of n-decane, n-undecane, n-tetradecane, and n-hexadecane using vaous flash point test methods. The flash points of these materials were found to be test-method dependent because of the inherent differences in the various flash point test methods. The reported reference flash point values of these materials are now used to verify the proper operation of flash point test equipment in place of 1,4-dimethylbenzene.

Citation

ASTM Journal of Testing and Evaluation

Volume

27

Issue

No. 6

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

flash point, n-decane, n-hexadecane, n-tetradecane, n-undecane, p-xylene, verification fluids

Citation

Montemayor, R. , Rogerson, J. , Colbert, J. and Schiller, S. (1999), Reference Verification Fluids for Flash Point Determination, ASTM Journal of Testing and Evaluation (Accessed December 15, 2025)