Deformation of PMMA samples in cone calorimeter and anaerobic gasification experiments

Published

October 20, 2024

Author(s)

Karen De Lannoye, Isaac Leventon, Lucie Hasalova, Alexander Belt, Ernst-Arndt Reinecke, Lukas Arnold

Abstract

16 Cone calorimetry and anaerobic gasification experiments are often used to assess material 17 flammability of bench-scale (coupon sized) samples in response to well-characterized external radiant 18 heating. In this project, it has been observed that the heating scenario maintained in these test 19 apparatus (i.e., heating of the top surface of samples that are insulated at their back side) can induce 20 significant sample deformation due to thermally induced expansion of the top, heated sample surface, 21 see Figs. 1 (a,b). This sample deformation has been observed in previous studies [1,2,3]; however, 22 limited information is available regarding its causes, impacts on measurement data, and potential 23 mitigation techniques. 24 Sample deformation in these tests impacts the pre- 25 scribed boundary conditions in the experiments: i.e., 26 as samples swell towards the radiant heater, incident 27 heat flux at their top surface increases and thermal 28 contact and heat transfer at the back of the sam- 29 ple can change as well. As seen in Fig 1(c), this 30 swelling behaviour may produce notable changes in 31 measurement data (i.e., sample mass loss rate (MLR) 32 increases with swelling), which thus complicates in- 33 terpretation of these results. In this work, multi- 34 ple tests were therefore conducted to understand the 35 impact of test conditions and sample preparation on 36 this swelling behaviour: variation of sample thickness 37 (from 6 mm to 20 mm), use of different sample re- 38 tainer frames, application of different incident heat 39 fluxes (from 25 kW/m2 to 75 kW/m2), and the use 40 of different adhesives at the back surface of the sample.

Proceedings Title

IAFSS14

Conference Dates

October 21-27, 2023

Conference Location

Tsukuba, JP

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

burning behavior, cone calorimeter, gasification, mass loss rate, PMMA, pyrolysis

Citation

De Lannoye, K. , Leventon, I. , Hasalova, L. , Belt, A. , Reinecke, E. and Arnold, L. (2024), Deformation of PMMA samples in cone calorimeter and anaerobic gasification experiments, IAFSS14, Tsukuba, JP, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956807 (Accessed December 17, 2024)