Abstract
Plastics will melt during fire. Melting fuels are falling down because the gravity of melting fuel overcomes its surface tension. These drips always accompany with a flame during falling process, which is capable to ignite other combustible fuel, therefore, promotes the fire disasters. Dripping fire is widely observed in wire fire and facade fire. However, the ignition theory of dripping fire has not be well studied. This work designs a series of lab-scale experiments to investigate the ignition behavior of thermoplastic drips on thermally thin fuel. Four mass of polyethylene (PE) drips and several paper thicknesses are tested separately. Results shows that the ignition number of drips and total dripping mass increase with the paper thickness, which follows the classic ignition theory of thermally thin fuel. Additionally, successful ignition depends on the drips mass and dripping frequency simultaneously, or the heat flux generated by landed drips. This study could help to understand the phase changing and ignition behaviors during fire disasters, and will help to improve the fire safety for buildings.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2612-2618 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Kung Cheng Je Wu Li Hsueh Pao/Journal of Engineering Thermophysics |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2020 |
Keywords
- Fa¸ cade fire
- Ignition theory
- Polyethylene drip
- Wire fire
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Mechanical Engineering