Preliminary Investigations of Forced Convection on Flame Propagation along Paper and Matchstick Arrays

Abstract

Experimental observations are made on the burning of a linear, uniformly spaced, single row of vertically oriented matchsticks, and on rows of continuous paperstrips, with an imposed wind, up to three feet per second, blowing with and opposed to the direction of fire spread. Matchstick height and spacing are varied. One height and row spacing are used for the paperstrips, and the number of rows is varied. Necessary conditions for flame propagation in the matchstick arrays are presented in a non-dimensional plot. Linear rates of flame propagation for the paper and matchstick arrays are presented as functions of the wind velocities for various spacings and heights. A correlation of the matchstick results is made by use of a semi-empirical model based on an ignition temperature and convective heat transfer. The experimental results are compared with previous work with no convection, of Emmons and Shen (1971) and Vogel and Williams (1970).