Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Pyrolysis and heat release rate of wood exposed to a weak external heat flux for long times is experimentally and theoretically studied in this paper. Experimental measurements have tested the effect of an external heat flux on the pyrolysis and heat release rate of wood using a cone calorimeter particularly with a small heat flux. Differences in the pyrolysis and heat release rate of wood under strong and weak heat fluxes are discussed. A mathematical model is developed to predict the pyrolysis of wood and time to ignition, also the model provides the temperature at each point of the solid before ignition, which is also used to explain the mechanism of the pyrolysis of wood exposed to weak external fluxes for long times