BURNING OF WOOD

The reduction of ignitability and combustibility of wood products is based on chemical and
physical means that have an effect on different stages of ignition and burning, for example:

heat induced changes of the internal structure of wood in molecular level;

physical and chemical processes of compounds produced in these changes, both inside
the wood and in the gases formed above it;

transfer of heat in a wood product;

transfer of oxygen into reaction areas.

Following topics are covered in this section:

1. Ignition and combustion of wood

2. Fire performance of wood

o 2.1 Ignitability
o 2.2 Heat release and fire spread
o 2.3 Charring
o 2.4 Smoke production and toxicity

1. Ignition and combustion of wood

Many materials in our environment, including wood products, burn indirectly in the sense that
the materials do not actually burn, but combustion takes place as a reaction between oxygen and
the gases released from a material (an exception from this rule is the glowing combustion of
charred wood where oxygen reacts directly with carbon). Under the influence of heat, wood
produces easily substances that react eagerly with oxygen, leading to the high propensity of
wood to ignite and burn.
Ignition and combustion of wood is mainly based on the pyrolysis (i.e. thermal decomposition)
of cellulose and the reactions of pyrolysis products with each other and with gases in the air,
mainly oxygen. When temperature increases, cellulose starts to pyrolyse. The decomposition
products either remain inside the material or are released as gases. Gaseous substances react with
each other and oxygen, releasing a large amount of heat that further induces pyrolysis and
combustion reactions. Pyrolysis and burning processes are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A schematic picture of pyrolysis and combustion of wood: a) External heating

increases the temperature of wood. b) Pyrolysis starts and the chemical structure of wood is
decomposed. Light pyrolysis products volatilize from the surface. c) Combustion starts. Pyrolysis
products react with oxygen and produce more heat, causing a strongly growing chain reaction.

Depending on environmental conditions (such as temperature, oxygen concentration, moisture,

fire retardants, pH etc.), the pyrolysis of wood can proceed mainly on two pathways presented in
Figure 2a. The tar forming pathway, taking place in a temperature of approximately 300 C, is
related to the normal burning of wood. In this case, pyrolysis produces a lot of tar including
levoglucosan that decomposes easily into burning gases under the influence of heat (see Figure
2b). Thermal decomposition can take place also through char forming pathway. In this process,
cellulose is first transformed to unstable, active cellulose that further decomposes so that
reaction products are mainly carbon dioxide and water, and the backbone of cellulose
containing a lot of carbon (see Figure 2c).

Figure 2. a) The two main reaction pathways of thermal decomposition of wood. b) Splitting of
cellulose molecules in the tar-forming reaction (normal combustion). c) Splitting of cellulose
molecules in the char-forming reaction.

The pyrolysis of wood is dependent on external factors, such as the way of heating, warming-up
rate of the material, etc. Therefore, wood products do not have an explicit ignition temperature,
but ignition takes place on a certain temperature range where the probability of ignition becomes
large enough. The temperature for the piloted ignition of wood is typically about 350 C,
whereas the spontaneous ignition requires a temperature of approximately 600 C.
2. Fire performance of wood
The reaction-to-fire properties, such as ignitability, heat release and flame spread, are most
relevant for fire retardant wood products. Charring as a fire resistance characteristic property
may also be influenced especially by surface protective layers.
2.1 Ignitability
In order that wood can ignite, its temperature must rise so high that pyrolysis takes place strongly
enough and the chemical reactions of combustion start. Therefore, the ignition of a wood product
is dependent on the way of heating, that is, the thermal properties of the material, and the way of
heat attack on the material.
The factors affecting the ignition of wood are well known in general: wet wood is difficult to
ignite, thin pieces of wood ignite more easily than thick logs, and light wood species ignite
quicker than heavy species. External factors having an influence on ignition are the intensity of
heat exposure and its form of effect (e.g. the distance of flames from the surface).
The moisture content of wood has an effect on ignition mainly as a heat sink. Heating-up of the
water and especially its vaporization consume heat energy. In addition, moisture increases the
thermal inertia of the material.
The ignition of wood products with different thicknesses is dependent on their thermal thickness.
A thermally thin layer ignites more quickly than a thermally thick material. When a thermally
thin product is exposed to heat on one side, its opposite side heats up very close to the
temperature of the exposed side by the time to ignition. In the case of a thermally thick product,
the opposite side does not heat up but remains at the ambient temperature when the specimen
ignites. The thermal thicknesses of practical products fall between thermally thin and thick. As a
rule of thumb, a wooden product is thermally thin if its thickness is not more than a few
millimetres, and thermally thick if its thickness is of the order of 10 mm or more.
The dependence of the time to ignition tig on the internal properties of a material under radiative
heat exposure can be described as follows [18,19]:

where , c and k are the density, specific heat and thermal conductivity of the material,
respectively, L0 is the specimen thickness, Tig; is the ignition temperature, T0 is the ambient
temperature, and is the net heat flux to the specimen surface.
When the thermal thickness of the product is between thermally thin and thick, the exponent
describing the effect of the net heat flux q" net and the temperature difference Tig T0 is between 1
and 2.
2.2 Heat release and fire spread
Heat released in combustion is the driving force of a fire: the larger the heat released by a
burning object is, the faster the fire spreads and the hotter the gases and limiting surfaces of the
fire enclosure become. Thus, one of the most essential quantities describing the burning of
materials is the rate of heat release, denoted with and expressed in kW or MW.
In addition to the internal structure and properties of a material, the rate of heat release is
strongly dependent on external factors. Therefore, exact values for different materials cannot
be given. The most important external factors having an effect on are the net heat flux
to
the surface and the oxygen concentration of the ambient, described with the factor f(O2). The
internal properties of a material affecting on are the heat of combustion Hc, the heat of
gasification Lv, and the specific heat capacity C. The following equation shows the rate of heat
release per unit area of a burning material:

where Tig is the ignition temperature and T0 is the ambient temperature. It is noted that, in
addition to the incoming heat flux on the surface,
is also dependent on the heat losses from
the surface.
The rate of heat release per unit area
can be measured for example using the cone calorimeter
[20] that describes burning in a well ventilated environment (the early stage of a fire). The results
obtained describe the heat release properties of materials, though they are to some extent
dependent on the heat exposure level used in the test, the properties of the exposed surface (in
the case of wood, e.g. grains, knots and tendency to crack), and the specimen thickness.
When wood burns, flames spread on its surface. Flame spread can be regarded as a sequence of
ignitions. Therefore, flame spread is governed by the same factors as ignition. The heat released
by a burning area has an effect on flame spread rate, directly by the flames and through the
warming-up of the fire enclosure. Thus, the factors governing the rate of heat release are
essential also for the flame spread.
2.3 Charring

When a wood product burns at a constant rate of heat release per unit area, the boundary between
the pyrolysed material and the intact wood, i.e. the pyrolysis front, proceeds to the wood in depth
direction. Since all pyrolysing wood can be considered to char, the charring rate corresponds to
the propagation rate of the pyrolysis front. Charring rate is an essential quantity for the fire
resistance of wooden structures, because the wood under the char layer preserves its original
properties.
Important factors for the charring rate of wood are the density , the external heat flux
, and
the moisture content w [21]. Charring rate decreases with increasing density according to the
power law
where is between 0.5 and 1 ( = 0.5 results from studying only heat transfer
and = 1 corresponds to a model covering only the conservation of mass). Charring rate
increases linearly with the external heat flux,
. An approximate relationship between
charring rate and moisture content is
.
A typical value of the charring rate of wood is approximately 0.5 - 1 mm/min. Table 3 shows
design values of charring rate for various wood products as presented in the European design
standards EN 1995-1-2 [22,23].
Charring rate is not generally much influenced by fire retardants [24]. However, the char yield is
usually increased quite a lot, that might contribute to the protection of the wood core. Protective
coatings may generally be efficient in preventing ignition and charring of wood.
Table 3. Design charring rates for wood products [22]. Symbols: k = characteristic density, d =
thickness, 0 = design charring rate for one-dimensional charring under standard fire
exposure, n = design notional charring rate under standard fire exposure.

2.4 Smoke production and toxicity

Smoke formed during a fire consists of small, mainly carbon containing particles that reduce the
visibility. High smoke production in the early phases of a fire is very harmful considering the fire
safety of buildings, because it endangers emergency egress through the reduction of visibility
and the irritating and incapacitating effects of smoke gases. Smoke production is dependent on
the burning material, but also external factors, such as fire type (flaming / smouldering) and
oxygen supply, are important.
Compared to plastics, the smoke production of wood products is minor. In well ventilated
conditions, the smoke production of wood is typically about 25100 m 2/kg, whereas plastic
products release hundreds or thousands m2/kg of smoke.
A common assumption is that fire retardants increase the smoke production of wood. This may
be the case, since fire retardants may cause incomplete combustion, but a fire retardant can also
reduce the smoke production. The proverb no smoke without fire holds true: if a fire retardant
treatment hinders burning well enough, smoke production is also reduced.
The main products of combustion are carbon dioxide and water, but also other chemical
compounds can be released. If these compounds are toxic, they impede the egress of occupants
from a burning building. The main cause of intoxication in fires is carbon monoxide (CO). It is
the dominating toxic combustion product from burning wood. The formation of CO is strongly
dependent on ventilation: well-ventilated combustion produces considerably less CO (less than
10 g/ kg of burning material) than oxygen-controlled burning where CO production is of the
order of 100 g/kg of burning material. Also the temperature is a significant factor, because it has
a strong effect on the course of the chemical reactions in combustion.
The production of toxic gases by wood products with improved fire performance is dependent on
the substances used as fire retardants. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor possible toxic
combustion products and keep their release well within acceptable limits.