The ignition of hygroscopic combustible materials by water

✍ Scribed by B.F. Gray; G.C. Wake

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 267 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-2180
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-2180(90)90084-5

✦ Synopsis

The problem of autoignition by the absorption of moisture has been postulated to occur in a number of situations of high practical importance. In this article we examine this phenomenon from a theoretical point of view. The problem is formulated as a combination of classical criticality theory and the critical initial value problem as defined more recently.

We show that the phenomenon of wetting-induced ignition (WlI) is possible in certain regions of parameter space, but however close the dry material may have been to criticality before wetting a finite amount of water is required to cause ignition. Equally interesting is the finding, that for a given material, WI! is impossible in sufficiently small samples but possible in larger ones. This reveals an important flaw in scaling test procedures.