Fire, chemistry gases

There are countless other reactions, many like these and others rather different, but the idea in every case is the same. A sudden flash of light causes an immediate photo-excitation chemical events ensue thereafter. This technique of flash photolysis was invented and applied to certain gas-phase reactions by G. Porter and R. G. W. Nor-rish, who shared with Eigen the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. High-intensity flash lamps fired by a capacitor discharge were once the method of choice for fast photochemical excitation. Lasers, which are in general much faster, have nowadays largely supplanted flash lamps. Moreover, the laser light is monochromatic so that only the desired absorption band of the parent compound will be irradiated. 

If intentional chemistry is performed, chemical reactivity hazards can be expected to exist at your facility. An exception is intentional, essentially complete combustion with air, such as the burning of propane in a gas-fired heater. The burning of ordinary flammable and combustible materials has been excluded from our definition of chemical reactivity hazards and is adequately treated elsewhere. If the answer to Question 5 is YES, then the rest of this section on intentional chemistry need not be considered further, and you should proceed to Question 2 at the beginning of this chapter. 

In an attempt to look for alternatives to the use of halogenated fire retardants, which function in the gas phase, an approach has been pursued which controls the polymer flammability by modifying the condensed phase chemistry. Silica gel combined with potassium carbonate have been reported to be an effective fire retardant for a wide variety of common polymers, such as polypropylene, nylon, poly(methylmethacrylate), poly(vinyl alcohol), cellulose, and to a lesser extent, polystyrene and styrene-acrylonitrile.49 The cone calorimeter data shown in Table 8.5 indicate that the PHHR is reduced by up to 68% without significantly increasing the smoke or carbon monoxide levels during the combustion. 

Typically, a fire growth model is evaluated by comparing its calculations (predictions) of large-scale behavior to experimental HRR measurements, thermocouple temperatures, or pyrolysis front position. The overall predictive capabilities of fire growth models depend on the pyrolysis model, treatment of gas-phase fluid mechanics, turbulence, combustion chemistry, and convective/radiative heat transfer. Unless simulations are truly blind, some model calibration (adjusting various input parameters to improve agreement between model calculations and experimental data) is usually inherent in published results, so model calculations may not truly be predictions. 

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