Flammability

is how easily something will burn or ignite, causing fire or combustion. The degree of difficulty required to cause the
combustion of a substance is quantified through fire testing. Internationally, a variety of test protocols exist to quantify
flammability. The ratings achieved are used in building codes, insurance requirements, fire codes and other
regulations governing the use of building materials as well as the storage and handling of highly flammable
substances inside and outside of structures and in surface and air transportation. For instance, changing
an occupancy by altering the flammability of the contents requires the owner of a building to apply for a building
permit to make sure that the overall fire protection design basis of the facility can take the change into account.
Ignition pt and temperature
Theminimum temperature at which a substance will continue to burn without additional application of extern
al heat. Also called kindling point.
Lower flammable limit
Lower flammability limit (LFL), usually expressed in volume per cent, is the lower end of the concentration range
over which a flammable mixture of gas or vapors in air can ignite at a given temperature and pressure. The
flammability range is delineated by the upper and lower flammability limits. Outside this range of air/vapor mixtures,
the mixture will not ignite (unless the temperature and pressure are increased). The LFL decreases with increasing
temperature; thus, a mixture that is below its LFL at a given temperature may ignite if heated sufficiently. For liquids,
the LFL is typically close to the saturated vapor concentration at the flash point, however, due to differences in the
liquid properties, the relationship of LFL to flash point (which is also dependent on the test apparatus) is not fixed and
some spread in the data usually exists.
Upper flammable limit
The maximum percentage of flammable gas or vapor in the air above which ignition cannot take place because the
ratio of the gas to oxygen is too high. Also known as upper explosive limit.
Flash point
The flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air. Measuring a flash
point requires an ignition source. At the flash point, the vapor may cease to burn when the source of ignition is removed.
The flash point is not to be confused with the auto ignition temperature, which does not require an ignition source, or the fire point, the
temperature at which the vapor continues to burn after being ignited. Neither the flash point nor the fire point is dependent on the
temperature of the ignition source, which is much higher.
The flash point is often used as a descriptive characteristic of liquid fuel, and it is also used to help characterize the fire hazards of liquids.
Flash point refers to both flammable liquids and combustible liquids. There are various standards for defining each term. Liquids with a
flash point less than 60.5 or 37.8 C (140.9 or 100.0 F) depending upon the standard being applied are considered flammable, while
liquids with a flash point above those temperatures are considered combustible
Fire pt
he fire point of a fuel is the temperature at which the vapors produced by that given fuel will continue to burn for at
least 5 seconds after ignition by an open flame. At the flash point, a lower temperature, a substance will ignite briefly,
but vapor might not be produced at a rate to sustain the fire. Most tables of material properties will only list material
flash points, but in general the fire points can be assumed to be about 10 C higher than the flash points. However,
this is no substitute for testing if the fire point is safety critical. It is done by open cup apparatus
Flame
A flame (from Latin flame) is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction taking place in a thin zone.
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Some
flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density to be considered plasma.
CONDUCTION
Conduction is the transfer of heat from one molecule to another through a substance. Not all substances conduct
heat at the same speed. Metals are considered good conductors since they can speedily transfer heat. Stone is also
a moderately good conductor, but wood, paper, air, and cloth are poor heat conductors.
CONVECTION
Convection is the concerted, collective movement of groups or aggregates of molecules within fluids (e.g.,
liquids, gases) and rheids, either through advection or through diffusion or as a combination of both of them.
Convection of mass cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take
place in solids. Diffusion of heat can take place in solids, but that is called heat conduction. Convection can be
demonstrated by placing a heat source (e.g. a Bunsen burner) at the side of a glass full of a liquid, and observing the
changes in temperature in the glass caused by the warmer fluid moving into cooler areas.
RADIATION
In physics, radiation is a process in which electromagnetic waves (EMR) travel through a vacuum or through matter-
containing media; the existence of a medium to propagate the waves is not required. A different but related definition
says radiation is a subset of these electromagnetic waves combined with a class of energetic subatomic particles
with very high kinetic energies; these are called ionizing radiation, and the particles are termed particle radiation.
Other sorts of waves, such as acoustic, seismic, hydraulic and so on are not usually considered to be forms of
"radiation" in either sense. We will consider the first definition, and return to the second later.