Combustion behavior characterization of major crops through cone calorimeter.

Summary: Induced by extremely inflammable characteristic, fire accidents worldwide of crops frequently occur and give rise to loss of life and personal injury. Given this problem, combustion behavior characterization of four major crops was investigated by cone calorimeter. Results confirmed the less quantity of crops needed longer time to be ignited. Meanwhile, the linear relation between the inverse square of time to ignition and heat flux of crops was found. For heat release rate (HRR), it was demonstrated that more quantity of crops prolonged the heat release process. For instance, with heat flux of 50 kW/m2, HRR values of 100 and 50 g soybean at 400 seconds were 212 and 40 kW/m2. Besides, peak values of HRR (PHRR) were close with different mass, especially for corn. Interestingly, compared to less quantity, more quantity crops were harder to be ignited at same heat flux. In addition to soybean, PHRR and total heat release (THR) of crops was gradually increased with the increasing heat flux. Meanwhile, THR values of 100 g crops were lower than double THR of 50 g crops. The investigation of combustion behavior characteristic could guide the safety storage of crops, thus avoiding the occurrence of crops fire hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]