EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DOW NWARD FLAME SPREAD RATE ON PMMA

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to experimentally study the downward flame spread rate and the angle of pyrolysis with different shapes of PMMA at different oxygen concentrations. The effect of sample shape is considered. The effect of oxygen concentration on flame spread rate and the angle of pyrolysis were studied. A modified Critical Oxygen Index Apparatus was used to perform these experiments. The samples of PMMA were burned at different oxygen concentrations. A camera was used to capture the images of the burning and ImageJ software was also used to analyze the images. The result of this work shows that the shape of the sample plays an important role in burning time, where the fuel with a large surface area takes a longer time to burn. It also showed that the velocity increases as the oxygen concentration increases, while the angle of pyrolysis decreases as the oxygen concentration increases for all of the sample shapes tested.