Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Upward Flame Spread Over an Array of Discrete Thermally-Thin PMMA Plates

  • Published:
Fire Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Experiments and theoretical analysis were conducted to investigate the upward flame spread over a homogenous PMMA plate and an array of discrete thermally thin PMMA elements. In the experiment, a digital video camera was used to record the flame spread process. An electronic balance and thermocouples were adopted to monitor the mass loss and pyrolysis front position, respectively, as a function of time. In the theoretical analysis, the mass loss rate of PMMA was correlated to the heat transfer during flame spread. The experimental results show that the flame spread rate peaks in the case of discrete PMMA elements with a fuel coverage around 80% rather than 100% (the homogenous case) because the gap with an appropriate spacing between neighboring elements accelerates the flame spread. However, the flame cannot spread over an array of discrete fuels at a coverage of 50% or smaller where the gap is too large to allow effective heat transfer required for flame spread. A smaller coverage of PMMA results in a larger mass loss rate per area since the gaps between elements can entrain more air to promote the burning. A logarithmic relation, that can well describe the mass loss rate as a function of PMMA coverage, was proposed based on the theoretical analysis and the fitting of experimental measurements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

A :

Burning area of PMMA plate, m2

B :

Spalding B number

F :

PMMA coverage

F f :

View factor of flame to PMMA surface

g :

Earth normal gravitational acceleration, m s−2

h :

Convective heat-transfer coefficient, W m−2 K−1

H :

Flame height, m

Δh v :

Heat required to convert PMMA at its surface temperature to gas phase, J g−1

H p :

Pyrolysis height, m

k :

Thermal conductivity of gas phase, W m−1 K−1

L :

Length of PMMA plate, m

\(\dot{m}^{\prime \prime }\) :

Mass loss rate per unit area, g s−1 m−2

Nu :

Nusselt number

Pr :

Prandtl number

\(\dot{q}^{\prime \prime }_{r}\) :

Radiative heat flux from the flame to PMMA surface, J s−1 m−2

\(\dot{q}_{cv}^{\prime \prime }\) :

Convective heat flux from the flame to PMMA surface, J s−1 m−2

\(\dot{q}_{rr}^{\prime \prime }\) :

Radiative heat flux lost from PMMA surface to ambient environment, J s−1 m−2

\(\dot{q}^{\prime \prime }_{misc}\) :

Conductive heat flux from thermal baffle to air, J s−1 m−2

Ra :

Rayleigh number

S :

Length of spacing, m

t :

Time, s

T f :

Flame temperature, K

T film :

Film temperature, K

T p :

Pyrolysis temperature, K

T ∞ :

Ambient temperature, K

V f :

Flame spread rate, m s−1

W :

Width of PMMA plate, m

x :

Characteristic length, m

β :

Thermal expansion coefficient, K−1

α :

Thermal diffusivity, m2 s−1

υ :

Kinematic viscosity, m2 s−1

σ :

Stefan-Boltzmann constant

ε f :

Emission coefficient of flame

ε p :

Emission coefficient of PMMA pyrolysis surface

References

  1. Park J, Brucker J, Seballos R, Kwon B, Liao YTT (2018) Concurrent flame spread over discrete thin fuels. Combust Flame 191:116–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Vogel M, Williams FA (1970) Flame propagation along matchstick arrays. Combust Sci Technol 1:429–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Gollner MJ, Xie Y, Lee M, Nakamura Y, Rangwala AS (2012) Burning behavior of vertical matchstick arrays. Combust Sci Technol 184:585–607

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Jiang L, Zhao Z, Tang W, Miller C, Sun J-H, Gollner MJ (2018) Flame spread and burning rates through vertical arrays of wooden dowels. Proc Combust Inst 37(3):3767–3774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Prahl JM, Tien JS (1973) Preliminary investigations of forced convection on flame propagation along paper and matchstick arrays. Combust Sci Technol 7:271–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gollner MJ, Miller CH, Tang W, Singh AV (2017) The effect of flow and geometry on concurrent flame spread. Fire Saf J 91:68–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Watanabe Y, Torikai H, Ito A (2011) Flame spread along a thin solid randomly distributed combustible and noncombustible areas. Proc Combust Inst 33:2449–2455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Miller CH, Gollner MJ (2015) Upward flame spread over discrete fuels. Fire Saf J 77:36–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cui W, Liao Y-TT (2019) Experimental study of upward flame spread over discrete thin fuels. Fire Saf J 110:102907

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Korobeinichev O, Gonchikzhapov M, Tereshchenko A, Gerasimov I, Shmakov A, Paletsky A, Karpov A (2018) An experimental study of horizontal flame spread over PMMA surface in still air. Combust Flame 188:388–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Avinash G, Kumar A, Raghavan V (2016) Experimental analysis of diffusion flame spread along thin parallel solid fuel surfaces in a natural convective environment. Combust Flame 165:321–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jiang L, He JJ, Sun JH (2018) Sample width and thickness effects on upward flame spread over PMMA surface. J Hazard Mater 342:114–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Quintiere JG (2006) Fundamental of fire phenomena. Wiley, West Sussex

  14. Ito A, Kashiwagi T (1988) Characterization of flame spread over PMMA using holographic interferometry sample orientation effects. Combust Flame 71:189–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Zhu H, Zhu G, Gao Y, Zhao G (2016) Experimental studies on the effects of spacing on upward flame spread over thin PMMA. Fire Technol 53:673–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Qian C, Saito K (1997) An empirical model for upward flame spread over vertical flat and corner walls. Fire Saf Sci 5:285–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Ananth R, Ndubizu CC, Tatem P (2003) Burning rate distributions for boundary layer flow combustion of a PMMA plate in forced flow. Combust Flame 135:35–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ranga R, Korobeinichev O, Raghavan V, Tereshchenko A, Trubachev S, Shmakov A (2019) A study of the effects of ullage during the burning of horizontal PMMA and MMA surfaces. Fire Mater 43(3):241–255

  19. Rakesh Ranga HR, Korobeinichev OP, Harish A, Raghavan V, Kumar A, Gerasimov IE, Gonchikzhapov MB, Tereshchenko AG, Trubachev SA, Shmakov AG (2018) Investigation of the structure and spread rate of flames over PMMA slabs. Appl Therm Eng 130:477–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. E. Zukoski, B. Cetegen, T. Kubota (1985) Visible structure of buoyant diffusion flames. In: editor^editors Symposium (International) on Combustion: Elsevier. p. 361–366.

  21. Rangwala AS, Buckley SG, Torero JL (2007) Upward flame spread on a vertically oriented fuel surface: the effect of finite width. Proc Combust Inst 31:2607–2615

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Loh HT, Fernandez-Pello AC (1985) A study of the controlling mechanisms of flow assisted flame spread. Symposium (International) on Combustion. 20:1575–1582

  23. Zhu H, Gao Y, Pan R, Zhong B (2019) Spacing effects on downward flame spread over thin PMMA slabs. Case Stud Therm Eng 13:100370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Pizzo Y, Consalvi JL, Querre P, Coutin M, Audouin L, Porterie B, Torero JL (2008) Experimental observations on the steady-state burning rate of a vertically oriented PMMA slab. Combust Flame 152:451–460

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Jiang L, Miller CH, Gollner MJ, Sun J-H (2017) Sample width and thickness effects on horizontal flame spread over a thin PMMA surface. Proc Combust Inst 36:2987–2994

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Gollner M, Huang X-Y, Cobian J, Rangwala A, Williams F (2013) Experimental study of upward flame spread of an inclined fuel surface. Proc Combust Inst 34:2531–2538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Babrauskas V (1983) Estimating large pool fire burning rates. Fire Technol 19:251–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Bergman TL, Incropera FP, DeWitt DP, Lavine AS (2011) Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer. Wiley, New York

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51976210 and 51806208) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. WK2320000043 and WK2320000048).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, Anhui, China

    Fu-Hai Gou, Hua-Hua Xiao, Mi Li, Man-Man Zhang & Jin-Hua Sun

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210014, Jiangsu, China

    Lin Jiang

Authors
  1. Fu-Hai Gou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hua-Hua Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lin Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mi Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Man-Man Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jin-Hua Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hua-Hua Xiao or Jin-Hua Sun.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gou, FH., Xiao, HH., Jiang, L. et al. Upward Flame Spread Over an Array of Discrete Thermally-Thin PMMA Plates. Fire Technol 57, 1381–1399 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-01068-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-020-01068-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation