Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A one-dimensional model describing the melting, degradation, and bubbling behavior of polypropylene exposed to a high heat flux is presented. The region of vigorous bubbling observed in experiment is represented as a mixed layer of uniform temperature. Temperature profiles and thicknesses of solid melt, and mixed layers are determined by solving conservation equations supplemented by simple models of turbulent mixing. The results of the model with and without a mixed layer are compared with experiment.