Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A. system of chemical analysis has been developed which enables both the permanent gases, and organic decomposition products from fires and other thermal decomposition processes to be studied with a single chromatograph. It consists of molecular sieve and silica gel columns with individual injection ports built into the inlet of a conventional organic research chromatograph. A simple method of peak area normalization is suggested for calculating the percentages of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in dry combustion gases which avoids the need for accurate sample injection and frequent sensitivity cheeks. The general method is demonstrated by using sensitivity factors available in the literature and analysing air and also two commercial gases of known compositions. For convenience, all normalizations of the integrator counts in this work have been undertaken using a short programme in an electronic desk computer.