Prediction of the Burning Rates of Charring Polymers

Details

• Creators:
  Stoliarov, Stanislav I. ; Crowley, Sean ; Walters, Richard N. ; Lyon, Richard E.
• Corporate Creators:
  SRA International, Inc ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center. Airport and Aircraft Safety Research and Development Division.
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Calorimeters Charring Polymer Intumescence Materials By Flammability Polymers Pyrolysis ThermaKin
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AR-TN09/59
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Technical Note
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center
• Abstract:
  The processes that take place in the condensed phase of a burning polymer play an important role in the overall combustion. Quantitative understanding of these processes is critical for prediction of ignition and growth of fires. During the past decade, a significant effort has been made to develop mathematical models of polymer pyrolysis. In the current study, a model of burning of two widely used charring polymers, bisphenol A polycarbonate and poly (vinyl chloride), was developed and validated. The modeling was performed using a flexible computational framework called ThermaKin, which was developed in the Federal Aviation Administration laboratory. ThermaKin solves time-resolved energy and mass conservation equations describing a one-dimensional material object subjected to external heat. Most of the model parameters were obtained from the results of direct property measurements, which is a key distinguishing aspect of this work. The model was employed to simulate cone calorimetry experiments performed under a broad range of conditions. Possible sources of error in the model parameterization were analyzed. The results of this study demonstrate that a one-dimensional numerical pyrolysis model can be used to predict the outcome of cone calorimetry experiments performed on a charring and intumescing polymer. A simple sub-model based on the properties of graphite and a single adjustable heat transfer parameter provides a reasonable approximation to the carbonaceous char description.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1583bb980175165b5bae3a72a5879a0596ad706896c2a462a0a461b21f358af269d8c2025f8fc20dd2944fb0cc8d850efe1e875482d4c9de2e8d9c55773a37e9
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90254/dot_90254_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.07 MB ]