Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Pyrolysis of a double-wall corrugated cardboard was studied in anaerobic and oxygen containing atmospheres using thermogravimetric analysis and a newly developed Controlled Atmosphere Pyrolysis Apparatus (CAPA). Oxygen was shown to affect kinetics and thermodynamics of the cardboard degradation. A previously developed cardboard pyrolysis model, which was partially based on cone calorimetry tests, was demonstrated to reproduce anaerobic gasification experiments conducted in CAPA. This model was extended to include oxidation reactions and transport of oxygen inside the cardboard matrix. The extended model was validated against the mass loss rate data collected in CAPA at 10.5 vol.% of oxygen under incident radiant heat fluxes of 20, 40, and 60 kW m-2.