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Heat flux and flame spread rate of discrete PMMA in concave building facade with window intervals

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Abstract

Building fire induced by PMMA spreads rapidly in the concave channel of the building facade, resulting in significant losses. In this study, the upward flame spread experiment of discrete PMMA plates under the effect of concave channels with window intervals is conducted. The variation laws of mass loss rate, heat flux distribution and flame spread rate under the different structural factors and combustible coverage of concave channel are revealed. The results show that when the structural factor (П: ratio of sidewall width to back wall width for concave structural facades) is 0.8, the average heat flux increased then decreased with the increase of measuring point heights, which tended to be the same at different heights as the combustible coverage (ƒ: ratio of PMMA sample area to sum of PMMA and window area) decreased. Under different structural factors, the average flame spread rate increases first and then decreases with combustible coverage, but the average fuel spread rate gradually increases. When the structure factor is fixed, the mass loss rate decreases with the increase of combustible coverage. A model of discrete flame spread due to window intervals is established on the basic heat transfer theory, and a jump ignition model for discrete solid fuels is proposed. The research results can provide an important reference for the design of building facade window size and the arrangement of flameproof materials.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51974298, No. 52374244), Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No. 22JCZDJC00890), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2021ZDPYYQ004, No. 2023ZDPYRH01), the Double First-class Construction Independent Innovation Project of China University of Mining and Technology (No. 2022ZZCX05K02), the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. KYCX23_2844) and the Graduate Innovation Program of China University of Mining and Technology (No. 2023WLKXJ134).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Fire Safety in Urban Underground Space, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Tao Wang, Minglun Cai, Song Li, Lujun Peng & Weiguang An

  2. School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Tao Wang, Minglun Cai, Song Li, Lujun Peng & Weiguang An

  3. Jiangsu Safety Emergency Equipment Technology Innovation Center, Xuzhou, 221100, China

    Weiguang An

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  1. Tao Wang
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  2. Minglun Cai
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  3. Song Li
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Correspondence to Weiguang An.

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Wang, T., Cai, M., Li, S. et al. Heat flux and flame spread rate of discrete PMMA in concave building facade with window intervals. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 299–310 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12679-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12679-z

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