Experimental Study on the Fire Properties of Nitrocellulose with Different Structures

Ruichao Wei; Yaping He; Jiahao Liu; Yu He; Wenzhong Mi; Richard Yuen; Jian Wang

doi:10.3390/ma10030316

Experimental Study on the Fire Properties of Nitrocellulose with Different Structures

Materials (Basel). 2017 Mar 20;10(3):316. doi: 10.3390/ma10030316.

Authors

Ruichao Wei^{1

2}, Yaping He³, Jiahao Liu^{4

5}, Yu He⁶, Wenzhong Mi⁷, Richard Yuen⁸, Jian Wang⁹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. rcwei@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
² Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. rcwei@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
³ School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Sydney 1797, Australia. Y.HE@uws.edu.au.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. jhliu12@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. jhliu12@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. hy2015@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
⁷ Fire Department of Ministry of Public Security, Beijing 100054, China. wrcustc@gmail.com.
⁸ Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. bckkyuen@cityu.edu.hk.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. wangj@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

In order to ensure the safety of inflammable and explosive chemical substance such as nitrocellulose (NC) mixtures in the process of handing, storage, and usage, it is necessary to obtain the fire properties of NC with different exterior structures. In present study, fire properties of two commonly used nitrocelluloses with soft fiber structure and white chip structure were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the ISO 5660 cone calorimeter. Experimental findings revealed that the most important fire properties such as ignition time, mass loss rate and ash content exhibited significant differences between the two structures of NC. Compared with the soft fiber NC, chip NC possesses a lower fire hazard, and its heat release rate intensity (HRRI) is mainly affected by the sample mass. In addition, oxygen consumption (OC) calorimetry method was compared with thermal chemistry (TC) method based on stoichiometry for HRRI calculation. HRRI results of NC with two structures obtained by these two methods showed a good consistency.

Keywords: combustion characteristic; cone calorimeter; hazard assessment; heat release rate intensity; nitrocellulose.