Effects of sample thickness on the combustion and smoke characteristics of chlorinated polyvinyl chloride

Abstract

AbstractChlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), as an important engineering plastic, its combustion and smoke characteristics were studied based on different thicknesses using cone calorimeter. The main combustion parameters including thermal thickness, ignition time, mass loss rate (MLR), heat release rate (HRR), fire performance index (FPI), fire growth index (FGI), smoke production rate (SPR), and CO/CO2 were discussed. Results show that the thermal thickness increases with the decrease of external heat flux. The first or second peaks of MLR and HRR curves based on three thicknesses have a good linear relationship with the external heat flux. The heat of gasification is estimated as 8.09 kJ/g according to slope by the first and second MLR curves as a function of the external heat flux. The calculation results of effective heat of combustion show that thickness can affect the heat release during combustion. In addition, the positive correlation between the first peak SPR and the first peak HRR not only indicates that CPVC is a combustible material, but also shows there is a correlation between the heat release and smoke emission of CPVC during combustion.