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

Ignition-Proof Properties of a High-Strength Mg-Gd-Ag-Zr Alloy

A high-strength Mg-15.3Gd-l.8Ag-0.3Zr （GQ152K, mass fraction） alloy was prepared by conventional ingot metallurgy process. The solution and aging （denoted as T6） treated alloy exhibits remarkable mechanical properties with ultimate tensile strength of 421 MPa and tensile yield strength of 309 MPa. It has higher igniting temperature of 1 208 K. Moreover, it can stand against flame at 1 203 K for over 6 min in vertical burning tests, and its flammability behavior is very similar to that of 6101A1 alloy. Vertical burning tests appear to be able to directly study the flammability behavior of Mg alloys and it appears to be a good approach to study the flammability behavior of Mg alloys in an aircraft fire accident.

Analysis of the origin of peak aerosol optical depth in springtime over the Gulf of Tonkin

By aggregating MODIS（moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer） AOD（aerosol optical depth） and OMI（ozone monitoring instrument） UVAI（ultra violet aerosol index）datasets over 2010–2014, it was found that peak aerosol loading in seasonal variation occurred annually in spring over the Gulf of Tonkin（17–23°N, 105–110°E）. The vertical structure of the aerosol extinction coefficient retrieved from the spaceborne lidar CALIOP（cloud-aerosol lidar with orthogonal polarization） showed that the springtime peak AOD could be attributed to an abrupt increase in aerosol loading between altitudes of 2 and 5 km.In contrast, aerosol loading in the low atmosphere（below 1 km） was only half of that in winter. Wind fields in the low and high atmosphere exhibited opposite transportation patterns in spring over the Gulf of Tonkin, implying different sources for each level. By comparing the emission inventory of anthropogenic sources with biomass burning, and analyzing the seasonal variation of the vertical structure of aerosols over the Northern Indo-China Peninsula（NIC）, it was concluded that biomass burning emissions contributed to high aerosol loading in spring. The relatively high topography and the high surface temperature in spring made planetary boundary layer height greater than 3 km over NIC. In addition, small-scale cumulus convection frequently occurred, facilitating pollutant rising to over 3 km, which was a height favoring long-range transport. Thus, pollutants emitted from biomass burning over NIC in spring were raised to the high atmosphere, then experienced long-range transport, leading to the increase in aerosol loading at high altitudes over the Gulf of Tonkin during spring.