Experimental investigation of effects of variation in heating rate, temperature and heat flux on fire properties of a non-charring polymer

• Published in: Journal of thermal analysis and calorimetry 2019-07, Vol.137 (2), p.447-459
• Main Authors: Abu-Bakar, Ariza S., Cran, Marlene J., Moinuddin, Khalid A. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Analytical Chemistry; Charring; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Combustion; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Fluid dynamics; Heat; Heat flux; Heat of reaction; Heat transmission; Heating rate; Incident radiation; Inorganic Chemistry; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Methyl methacrylate; Physical Chemistry; Polymer Sciences; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Properties (attributes); Pyrolysis; Solid phases; Thermal conductivity; Vapor phases
• ISSN: 1388-6150; 1588-2926
• DOI: 10.1007/s10973-018-7941-0

During fire, charring and non-charring polymers undergo reactions in the solid phase (pyrolysis) and in the gas phase (combustion). These reactions can be modelled using computational fluid dynamics-based fire modelling for the prediction of fire growth and spread. Given that many fire properties vary with temperature including heating rate and radiation flux, improvements in fire simulations can be made by accounting for these variations. This study characterizes the fire properties of the non-charring synthetic polymer poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) for coupled pyrolysis and combustion simulation. Under pyrolysis, the heat of reaction of PMMA varies with heating rate due the change in residence time facilitating volatilization at any given temperature, particularly at higher heating rates. As a result, the volatiles are formed when the sample has reached higher temperature and therefore more heat flow is needed to assist this process at higher heating rates. Similarly, combustion parameters are also found to vary with the incident radiation flux; however, the variation is relatively minimal. In this study, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity did not vary with temperature for PMMA.