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KEY PROPERTIES OF COMBUSTION PRODUCTS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING

Assoc. Prof. Jozef Martinka, Ing. Igor Wachter, Dr. Peter Rantuch, Prof. Karol Balog

Abstract

The presented paper covers the research of combustion products of selected natural and synthetic polymers and their key properties in terms of toxic effects on living organisms and the visibility in the area affected by fire. The samples of silver birch (Betula verrucosa Ehrh.), common oak (Quercus robur L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), polyethylene and polypropylene were investigated. The examined materials were compared in the regard to their toxicity of the combustion products based on the carbon monoxide yield and in terms of the visibility in the affected area based on the extinction coefficient. The yield of carbon monoxide and the extinction coefficient was determined in a cone calorimeter at the heat flux of 30 kW.m-2. The obtained data show that the wood materials (during the cone calorimeter test) exhibit a maximum yield of carbon monoxide over a period of more than 1000 s after the initiation (flameless form of combustion пїЅ smouldering). The polyethylene samples showed a maximum yield of carbon monoxide in the flame initiation phase. Polypropylene showed a pronounced local maximum of the carbon monoxide yield just prior to the flame initiation phase and then two distinct local maxima just prior to the complete burning of the sample. Wood materials samples showed two local maxima of the extinction coefficients. The first local maximum corresponded approximately to the time of flame initiation phase. The second local maximum corresponded approximately to the time of transition to the flameless combustion. The extinction coefficient of polyethylene, as well as the polypropylene, increased from the moment of initiation to the moment of the spontaneous extinguishing of the flame (when it reached the maximum value).

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017h/43/s19.053

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