Influence of moisture on autoignition of woods in cone calorimeter

Abstract

Six species of wood samples, namely, pine, beech, cherry, oak, maple, and ash, were investigated by autoignition in a cone calorimeter to identify the influence of moisture on autoignition. It was observed that (1) for autoignition, as different from piloted ignition, there is no obvious trend in ignition temperature when moisture content increases from 0% to 11%; (2) ignition temperature decreases with a higher external heat flux, and the influence of specimen thickness to the ignition temperature can be ignored; (3) ignition time correlates linearly with ρ0.73/(q′•-28.0)1.82, and the coefficient rises with the increase of moisture content; and (4) the influence of moisture to the average mass loss rate and time at 50% mass loss can be ignored if the moisture content of wood sample is lower than 11%. © 2012 The Author(s).