Bottom Surface Combustion of Polymethylmethacrylate Disks—I. Functional Dependence of the Combustion Rate

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to study the bottom surface combustion of polymethylmethacrylate disks. The influence of parameters acting on combustion rate as the characteristic length of the samples (disks of different diameters) or imposed radiative fluxes in addition to flame radiation, have been examined. Profiles of temperatures and concentrations of stable chemical species are also reported.

It is observed that the combustion rate decreases and that the flame stand-off distance increases as the sample dimension increases and these results show the importance of convective heat transfer. Imposed radiative fluxes increase the combustion rate, but reveal a marked influence of the well-known heat blocking effect.