Flash point and fire hazard analysis of three organic fuels and their aqueous solutions at low pressures

Author: Chen, Q. P., He, Y. P., Wang, X. H., Zhou, T. N., Ding, C., Wang, J.

Journal: Fire and Materials

Keywords: aqueous solution, fire hazard, flash point, low ambient pressure, organic fuel, combustion characteristics, altitude, temperature, prediction, model, air

Abstract:

To study the low pressure influence on the flash point and fire hazard of organic fuels and their aqueous solutions, a series of experiments has been conducted to measure the open-cup and closed-cup flash points of methanol, ethanol, and n-decane aqueous solutions including different mole fractions under different static pressures ranging from 35 to 101 kPa. The results show that both the pressure and fuel mole fraction have a nonlinear correlation with the flash point of the miscible fuel specimens like the correlation provided in this paper. For the partially miscible fuel specimens with a lower density than water, the water content has almost no influence on the flash point. The fire risks of the experimental results were analysed based on the standard GB50160-2008, which shows that the fire risk becomes higher at low pressures, and there is a critical pressure at the turning point of the change in fire classification. A method to achieve the critical low pressure of different fuels or aqueous solutions from the fire hazard classification is derived in this paper.