Thermal and chemical analysis of flammability and combustibility of fir wood in cone calorimeter coupled to FTIR apparatus

This paper deals with the thermal degradation of fir wood in a cone calorimeter under well-ventilated atmosphere used with a piloted ignition. The thermal and chemical sample decompositions were studied with heat fluxes varying from 15 to 60 kW m(-2). With the cone calorimeter results and equations found in literature, the significant parameters of fir wood sample flammability and combustibility were deduced from ignition time (t(ig)), mass loss and gas analysis. These parameters are thermal response parameter, critical heat flux, ignition surface temperature, thermal thickness, mass loss rate, thermal inertia, effective heat of combustion, heat release rate, heat of gasification and others. Moreover, during each experiment, the main gaseous species emissions were continuously and simultaneously monitored. Furthermore, the solid degradation and combustion process for fir wood were described in details. Experimental results from cone calorimeter were compared with data found in literature, and generally, a quite good accordance was found between the both sets of results. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.