Establishing pyrolysis kinetics for the modelling of the flammability and burning characteristics of solid combustible materials

Abstract

In this article, a generic framework was proposed to effectively characterise the pyrolysis kinetics of any household furniture materials. To examine the validity of this method, two wooden polymeric samples, (1) furniture plywood and (2) particle board, were experimented through thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, as well as cone calorimetry. The framework comprises of three major parameterisation procedures including (1) using the Kissinger method for the initial approximation, (2) modification of modelling constants and (3) optimisation by comparisons with the experimental results. The finalised pyrolysis kinetics was numerically investigated through computational fluid dynamics simulation of the cone calorimeter. Numerical predictions were validated against the experimental data for three different cone radiation intensities. Good agreement was achieved between the computational and experimental results in terms of heat release rate, ignition time and burn duration. The proposed framework was capable of establishing quality pyrolysis kinetics that fully replicates the complex thermal decomposition of solid combustible materials.