Burning characteristics of selected substances: Production of heat, smoke and chemical species

The cone calorimeter technique was employed to investigate the burning characteristics and composition of fire effluents of selected chemicals, including pesticides, compounds used in the chemical industry, liquid solvents and polymers. A controlled-atmosphere apparatus was utilized, allowing variation of the ventilation conditions in the test chamber. The quantities measured to determine the burning properties were time to ignition, rate of heat release, mass and mass loss rate of the sample and smoke production. The composition of the fire effluents was determined by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy analysis. The dependence on the availability of oxygen on a range of parameters has been examined. Both the degree of ventilation, expressed in terms of the global equivalence ratio of the system, as well as the local oxygen environment, reflected by the combustion efficiency, have been addressed. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.