Study of Burning Behaviors and Fire Risk of Flame Retardant Plywood by Cone Calorimeter and TG Test

A flame retardant composition was prepared by using phosphoguanidine,guanidine sulfamate,disodium octaborate tetrahydrate and dodecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride.Veneers were immersed in such flame retardant mixture to prepare plywood.The combustion characteristics and thermal stability of plywood were assessed using a cone calorimeter and TG.Results showed that:(1)High concentration and loading of flame retardant were beneficial for the fire resistance of the plywood.(2)The limiting oxygen index(LOI)and residual mass of plywood processed using the flame retardant was increased by 87.52%and 58.66%compared to those of the untreated plywood,while the average heat release rate(av-HRR),total heat release(THR),effective heat of combustion(EHC),total smoke release(TSR),CO yield(COY),CO_(2) yield(CO_(2)Y)and oxygen consumption were decreased by 44.3%,82.9%,47.0%,86.0%,89.9%,50.1%and 83.1%,respectively.(3)Treated plywood which had a low fire growth index(FGI)displayed a later combustion heat release rate peak and slower flame spread than observed for the untreated material.Combustion of treated plywood displayed a higher fire performance index(FPI),indicating a longer time to ignition.This suggests that burning structures from this material would be subject to a longer time for escape from the structure and would present lower fire risk than similar structures containing treated plywood.(4)TG results demonstrated that the presence of the flame retardant can decrease the pyrolysis temperature for hemicellulose and cellulose,change the decomposition and reaction progress for plywood degradation and promote dehydration carbonization and accelerated charformation.Moreover,the formed char was more stable than that combustion of untreated plywood.(5)The flame retardant contains nitrogen(N),phosphorus(P),boron(B),chlorine(Cl)and guanidine(Gu)compounds.The adhesive also contains N and P compounds.These substances display flame resistance and supplement each other to generate flame retardance than any one used alone.By changing the thermolysis and thermal decomposition processes,the heat release and smoke release from plywood,undergoing combustion was reduced.This controlled generation of combustible substances and promoted dehydration and carbonization to form char.As a result,the flame resistance of plywood was improved significantly.The probability of smoke asphyxia or poisoning death of those trapped in structures containing treated plywood during fire accidents can be decreased dramatically.

The flame retardancy of alginate/flame retardant viscose fibers investigated by vertical burning test and cone calorimeter

In this research, the flame retardancy of neat alginate fiber, flame retardant viscose fiber （FRV） and alginate/FRV （50/50） blending fibers were investigated by vertical burning and cone calorimeter tests. The vertical burning test showed that the afterflame time of alginate fiber was 0 s, but alginate presented serious smoldering behavior with the afterglow time of 605 s and damaged length of 85 mm, while the afterglow time of FRV was 0 s. When the FRV was incorporated into alginate with the weight ratio of 50/ 50, the afterglow time and damaged length were significantly reduced to 85 s and 35 mm, indicating the smoldering of alginate can be effectively decreased. The morphology and chemical structure of the alginate residual demonstrated that it was seriously destroyed during smoldering process, which was ascribed to its relative low initial thermal degradation temperature. Based on the thermal properties analysis, alginate and FRV fibers shared the concurrence of rapid degradation in the same temperature region of 250-300 ℃, through which, the compact and stable char formed by FRV can prevent the heat transmission and suppress the smoldering of alginate. Further, the cone calorimeter results demonstrated that the time to ignition （TTI） significantly increased and peak heat release rate （PHRR） decreased for alginate/FRV （50/50） compared with FRV. With this research, a new method to overcome the smoldering of alginate was proposed by blending with FRV

Optimization of Pyrolysis Properties using TGA and Cone Calorimeter Test

The present paper describes an optimization work to obtain the properties related to a pyrolysis process in the solid material such as density, specific heat, conductivity of virgin and char, heat of pyrolysis and kinetic parameters used for deciding pyrolysis rate. A repulsive particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to obtain the pyrolysis-related properties. In the previous study all properties obtained only using a cone calorimeter but in this paper both the cone calorimeter and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) are used for precisely optimizing the pyrolysis properties. In the TGA test a very small mass is heated up and conduction and heat capacity in the specimen is negligible so kinetic parameters can first be optimized. Other pyrolysis-related properties such as virgin/char specific heat and conductivity and char density are also optimized in the cone calorimeter test with the already decided parameters in the TGA test.

AN S-AND P-CONTAINING FLAME RETARDANT FOR POLYPROPYLENE

A novel charring agent,bis(1-oxo-4-hydroxymethyl-2,6,7-trioxa-1-phosphabicyclo[2.2.2]octane) phenylphosphine sulfide (BCPPS),has been synthesized,and it is combined with ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and melamine phosphate (MP) to impart flame retardance and dripping resistance for polypropylene (PP).The fire performance of the treated PP is investigated by limiting oxygen index (LOI),vertical burning test (UL-94) and cone calorimeter,and the thermal stability and thermal oxidative stability of the composite...

Improved flame resistance properties of unsaturated polyester resin with TiO2-MXOY solid superacid

Five SO4^2-/TiO2-MXOY solid super acids(SSA:Cu@Ti:SSA,Zr@Ti:SSA,Fe@Ti:SSA,Mn@Ti:SSA,Mo@Ti:SSA)were successfully prepared by sol-gel method,and its chemical structure and element content were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD)analysis,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FHIR)and energy dispersive spectroscopy(EDS).Then,a compound flame retardant system containing SSA and ammonium polyphosphate/montmorillonite(AM)were was introduced into an unsaturated polyester resin(UPR)to enhance the flame retardance.The effect of SSA on the flammability and thermal stability of the UPR was evaluated by the limiting oxygen index(LOI),cone calorimeter te st(CCT)and thermogravimetric analysis(TGA).The LOI results showed that the flame retardance of the UPR composites was significantly improved with the addition of SSA.Moreover,their heat release rate(HRR),total heat release(THR),the smoke production rate(SPR)and CO and CO2 yield were much decreased.In addition,the initial decomposition temperature of UPR/AM/S SA was delayed,indicating that their thermal stability was increased,and the residual char of UPR/AM/SSA was also increa sed due to strong catalytic of SSA ability for esterification and dehydration.Furthermore,the microstructure of the residual char after combustion of the UPR composites was studied by the scanning electron microscopy(SEM),and it was found that the char layer structure was more continuous and dense after the addition of the SSA.In sum up,the synergistic effect between SSA and AM was the main factor for the great improvement of flame retardant of UPR composites.

A Study on the Combustion Characteristics and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Rice Husks with Varied Heat Fluxes

This paper analyzes the combustion characteristics and greenhouse gas emissions from varied heat fluxes with rice husks. In general, rice husks burnt outdoors at a lower temperature range of 300-400 ℃, which cannot assure complete combustion, thus generating a large volume of toxic air pollutants. A heat flux of 40 kW/m^2, with a cone calorimeter, is the equivalent to the 700 ℃ of an incinerator. The test result shows that the mass reduction rate of the sample at this or at a higher temperature condition was 99.5% or higher, meaning that the sample was almost completely combusted. In this study using rice husks, the amount of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, discharged were 1.57-3.61 kg/kg. This is as high as 10 times, than produced in other studies. When the rice husks are burnt outdoors, they are not completely combusted as the combustion temperature remains low, and the rice husk residuals are continuously being combusted in a smoldering phase which creates a large volume of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Therefore, it is recommended to burn rice husks at 700 ℃ or higher to minimize the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions.

Inverse Problem of Flame Surface Properties of Wood using a Repulsive Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

The convective heat transfer coefficient and surface emissivity before and after flame occurrence on a wood specimen surface and the flame heat flux were estimated using the repulsive particle swarm optimization algorithm and cone heater test results. The cone heater specified in the ISO 5660 standards was used, and six cone heater heat fluxes were tested. Preservative-treated Douglas fir 21 mm in thickness was used as the wood specimen in the tests. This study confirmed that the surface temperature of the specimen, which was calculated using the convective heat transfer coefficient, surface emissivity and flame heat flux on the wood specimen by a repulsive particle swarm optimization algorithm, was consistent with the measured temperature. Considering the measurement errors in the surface temperature of the specimen, the applicability of the optimization method considered in this study was evaluated.

Study on Effect of Schima superba Fuelbreak

Schima superba is widely used for shaded fuelbreaks in southern China. Experiments were done in the laboratory and wild for testing the effects of the shaded fuelbreaks. The cone calorimeter test results indicated that China red pine (Pinus massoniana) needles are easy to burn under the condition of the incident radiant flux at 75 kW/m^2 and ignition source, the peak value of heat release rate of pine needles appears earlier (22 s) and higher (146 kW/m^2). S. superba leaves burnt slowly and had a lower total heat release. The mass loss curves present that the peak value of pine needle is higher than that of S.superba leaves, which is 0.14 g/s versus S.superba 0.08 g/s. A fire experiment has been done in a suburb of Guangzhou City. It was measured that the fuel loads and their distribution of the stand of pine and fuelbreak before and after the fire experiment. There was almost no grass and litter on the ground of the fuelbreak due to clearing litter every year at the beginning of fire season. In the pine forest, there were shrubs, grasses and litter under the story.During the burning experiment, most of the pine forest has swept by surface fire at a spread speed of 2.2 m/min and fire intensity of 168-2961 kW/m. But in some area along the outside fire line, there occurred crown fire due to the high fuel load on the ground. The flame got 8.0-8.5 m high and fire intensity 24 881～28 379 kW/m. Part crown of several trees of the fuelbreak burnt because the crown fire spread. But the fire had not across the fuelbreak and no spotting fire happened. The fire experiment results indicated that the fuelbreak has effects on mitigating fire intensity and depress fire spread in some degree. The shaded fuelbreak has the ability of fire resistance and its dense crown can block spotting fire resources.