Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Experiments were performed to determine the effect of scale reduction and transport mechanisms on piloted ignition. Piloted ignition is commonly used as a reference for material flammability. The experimental methodology is that of the Lateral Ignition and Flame Spread Test (LIFT) and the fuel evaluated is commercial grade PMMA. It was observed that buoyancy effects had a weak dependency on sample size; therefore, length scale changes did not affect the ignition delay time, surface temperatures, nor the critical heat flux for ignition. It was determined that the ignition delay time is affected by the flow characteristics mainly by changing the fuel mass fraction. A minimum mass fraction of fuel was found necessary for ignition to occur and this value remains invariant with all parameters studied