Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW

Forestry and Wood Technology № 86, 2014:133-137

(Ann. WULS - SGGW, For. and Wood Technol. 86, 2014)

The study of time to ignition of woods under external heat flux by piloted
ignition and autoignition
WALDEMAR JASKÓŁOWSKI1), PAWEŁ OGRODNIK 1)
, ANETA ŁUKASZEK -
CHMIELEWSKA1)

1) Faculty of Fire Safety Engineering, The Main School of Fire Service (SGSP)

Abstract: The study of time to ignition of woods under external heat flux by piloted ignition and autoignition. A
typical room fire starts when a building material (i.e wood, plastics) is exposed to an external heat (ignition)
source. Due to the heating, the surface temperature of the solid object starts to rise. Provided the net heat flux
into the material is sufficiently high, the surface temperature eventually reaches a level at which pyrolysis begins
and material decomposes into volatiles. The ignition of combustible materials is an important aspect of the
processes taking place in a fire. In this work, an experimental study of the time to ignition of wood by
autoignition and piloted ignition has been carried out. A study of the autoignition and piloted ignition (spark
igniter) of wood by a radiant cone heater from Cone Calorimeter was conducted. Insulated samples were
exposed horizontally to incident heat flux: 20, 30 and 50 kW/m2. The times to piloted ignition and were
measured and compared with the times to autioignition of beech, pine and oak wood. The study found that for
smallest incident heat flux (20 kW/m-1) the time to autoignition is prominently diverges from the piloted ignition
time. The biggest differences, first observed for beech wood (difference – 241 sec). The study found that for high
incident heat flux (50 kW/m2) differences of the time to ignite the samples by piloted ignition and autoignition
are insignificant, especially for pine and oak.

Keywords: ignition, piloted ignition, autoignition, wood, cone calorimeter

INTRODUCTION

Wood is a common building materials and can constitute the bulk of the fuel load in
structures (McAllister 2001). The ignition of building materials is an important aspect of the
processes taking place in an fire. An accurate prediction of fire risk requires an adequate
description of the initiation and development of a fire (Bilbao et al. 2001, Mastral et al.
2001). Ignition may be defined as that process by which a rapid, exothermic reaction is
initiated, which then propagates and causes material involved to undergo change ,producing
temperature greatly in excess of ambient (Shi and Chew 2013). More specifically, the ignition
of a solid materials can be viewed as a three-step process: as wood is subjected to a heat flux,
it undergoes decomposition. The wood decomposes generating fuel gases flowing to the
surrounding while leaving a residual char matrix over the virgin wood (Boonmee and
Quintiere 2005). The next, fuel vapor mixes with fresh air to dorm a combustible mixture,
and the flammable mixture reaches the pilot to the point where chemical reaction reaches the
“thermal runway” (Boonmee and Quintiere 2005, Mindykowski et al. 2011). Ignition tends to
mean two different things: (1) kindled ignition where a material is ignited by an external heat
source such as flame, sparks (piloted ignition) or hot surface (autoignition, spontaneous
ignition). Ignition by piloted ignition occurs when the rate of pyrolysis is sufficient to allow
the establishment of a diffusion flame, when a spark or small pilot flame is introduced into the
boundary layer close to the irradiated surface (Silcock 1995). Autoignition requires very high
intensities to occur. Compared with piloted ignition, process of autoignition is closer to the
development of real fire. Generally, the time to ignition is dependent on the power of the

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radiation source and the method of its starting. There is a number of reviews concerning the
ignition of [Link] materials (include woods) showed different fire behaviors
under piloted ignition and autoignition conditions (Shi and Chew 2013). From statistical
analysis of experimental results, Mellinek noticed that minimum rate of volatile emission can
be used to predict ignition, which is about 5,1 g/m2s for piloted ignition and 7,7 g/m2s for
autoignition. Atteya (Atteya 1983) performed a comprehensive set of ignition measurements
on eight wood species (Shi and Chew 2013). Kanuary has found the minimum surface
temperature of wood under radiative heating mode for autoignition is 6000C and for piloted
ignition 300 – 4100C. With convective heating the spontaneous ignition, occurred at 4900C
and with piloted ignition 4500C. Dimitrakopoulos used the standard cone colorimeter methods
to determine the ignition time and the moisture of extinction of selected Mediterranean forest
fuels in order to develop a relative flammability classification. Schemel et al. described a
calorimetric study of pine needle beds. Mindykowski et al. conducted experiments in the FM
Global Fire Propagation Apparatus (FPA) to investigate the piloted ignition of litters
composed of oven dried maritime pine (MP) needles and kermes oak leaves. For the fuel beds
considered they found that the inverse of the ignition time is linearly dependent on the
imposed heat flux, as observed for thermally- thin solids (Consalvi et al. 2001). Quintiere
gained an approximate solution of ignition time by solving integral equations. It was assumed
that ignition is based on critical temperature of surface under external heat flux. The ignition
time was found to be related with thermal inertia, ignition temperature, and external heat flux
(Quintiere 1992). Further work by Atreya, Carpentier & Harkleroad examined the effect of
sample orientation on piloted ignition and flame spread on wood (Spearpoint and Quintiere
2001).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The three kinds of wood species: beech, oak and pine used in this study are shown in table 1.
The dimensions of the samples were 100 x 100 mm. The thickness of the test specimens was
10 mm.

Table 1. Description of the test materials

Average density Average moisture
Wood Grain orientation
[kg/m-1] content [%]
Beech along 610,4 9,6
Oak along 643,8 9,2
Pine along 475,7 9,4

The experiments were carried out on a cone calorimeter (fig.1) provided by Fire Testing
Technology (FTT) Ltd. All the experiments were conducted placing the specimens in a
sample holder in a horizontal position. The back of the samples was insulated with low-
conductivity material to reduce heat losses to the sample holder. The spark igniter and cone
heater to the cone calorimeter was used to induce ignition. The materials were tested in the
horizontal orientation, at an external heat flux 20, 30 and 50 kW/m2. A sample was
considered ignited when visible flame was observed. Time at ignition was considered as the
time do ignition. This was defined as the minimum exposure time required for the specimen
to ignite and sustain flaming combustion.

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 a) b)
Fig.1. Experimental set-up of the cone calorimeter. a) Cone calorimeter, b) cone heater

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The time to autoignition was measured and compared with the time to piloted ignition.
Summary of time to ignition as shown in tab. 2.

Table 2. Time [s] to autoignition and piloted ignition

External heat flux [kW/m2]
Autoignition or
Species 20 kW/m2 30 kW/m2 50 kW/m2
piloted ignition
Time to autoignition or piloted ignition
autoignition 865 194 46
Beech
piloted ignition 624 64 29
autoignition 621 240 40
Oak
piloted ignition 451 81 36
autoignition 509 59 20
Pine
piloted ignition 302 50 25

Definition of time to ignition is as the time to existence of flaming on or over the surface of
the specimen for periods of over 10 s (ISO 5660) and is very important parameter for
evaluating flammability of building materials. Regardless of the intensity of the heat flux to
ignite the longest time for a beech wood. For smallest incident heat flux (20 kW/m-1) the time
to autoignition is prominently diverges from the piloted ignition time. The biggest differences,
first observed for beech wood (difference – 241 sec). The longer time to autoignition is a
result of the absence of a piloted heat source (igniter spark) to promote the ignition process.
The time to autoignition with low incident heat flux still follows the trend of the time to
autoignition for the high heat flux and time to piloted ignition. The study found that for high
incident heat flux (50 kW/m2) differences of the time to ignite the samples by piloted ignition
and autoignition are insignificant, especially for pine and oak.

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CONCLUSIONS

Three species of wood samples, namely pine, beech and oak, were studied experimentally
under external heat flux – 20, 30 and 50 kW/m2 by autoignition and piloted ignition (in
presence spark). Understanding piloted ignition and autoignition is a key component of
under- standing fire spread, both in structural and wildland fires (McAllister 2013): The
ignition of wood depends on many factors including the species, grain orientation, moisture
content, exposure conditions and the inherent variability of wood as a natural material. The
ignition is some inverse function of the incident heat flux. The higher the incident heat flux is the
shorter is the ignition time. The study found that the heat flux – 20 kW/m2 is sufficient to
ignite the wood species tested regardless of the type of ignition. At high heat flux (50 kW/m2)
differences in the time to ignition by autoignition and piloted ignition were insignificant.

REFERENCES

1. ATTEYA A., 1983: Pyrolysis, ignition and fire spread on horizontal surfaces of
wood, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge,
2. BILBAO R., MASTRAL J.F., ALDEA M.E., CEAMANOS J., BETRAN M., LANA
J.A, 2001: Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Ignition and Smoldering of
Wood Including Convective Effects, Combustion and Flame, 126; 1363-1372
3. BOONMEE N., QUINTIERE J.G., 2005: Glowing ignition of wood: the onset of
surface combustion, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 30; 2303 - 2310
4. CONSALVI J.L., NMIRA F., FUENTES A., MINDYKOWSKI P., PORTERIE B.,
2011: Numerical study of piloted of forest fuel layer, Proceedings of the Combustion
Institute, 33; 2641 - 2648
5. LIODAKIS S., BAKIRTZIS D., DIMITRAKOPOULOS, 2002: Ignition
characteristics of forest species in relation to thermal analysis data, Thermochimica
Acta, 390; 83-91
6. McALLISTER S., 2013: Critical mass flux for flaming ignition of wet wood, Fire
Safety Journal, 61; 200-206
7. MINDYKOWSKI P., FUENTES A., CONSALVI J.L., PORTERIE B., 2011: Piloted
ignition of wildland fuels, Fire Safety Journal, 46, 34-40
8. SILCOCK G.W.H., 1995: A Protocol for Analysis of Time-to-Ignition Data from
Bench Scale Test, Fire Safety Journal, 24; 75–95
9. SPEARPOINT M.J., QUINTIERE J.G., 2001: Predicting the piloted ignition of wood
in the cone calorimeter using an integral model – effect of species, grain orientation
and heat flux, Fire Safety Journal, 36/4; 391-415
10. QUNTIERE J.G., 1992: A semi-quantitative model for the burning rate of solid
materials, NISTIR 4840. Gaithersburg: National Institute of Standard Technology
(NIST)

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Streszczenie: Badanie czasu do zapalenia poprzez samozpałon i zapłon wybranych gatunków
drewna. Zapoczątkowanie pożaru odbywa się poprzez niekontrolowane zapalenie materiałów
budowlanych, elementów wyposażenia wnętrz. Źródłem ciepła może być bodziec: ciągły –
działający w dłuższym czasie (np. gorąca powierzchnia grzejnika elektrycznego, papieros) lub
bodziec punktowy połączony z bodźcem ciągłem (np. przegrzany kabel elektryczny z iskrą
elektryczną). Pierwszy ze sposobów zapoczątkowania spalania nazywa się samozapłonem, a
drugi zapłonem pilotowym. W odniesieniu do bezpieczeństwa pożarowego rodzaj zapalenia
ma istotne znaczenie gdyż wpływa na szybkość tworzenia się zagrożeń pożarowych podczas
pożaru, w szczególności w I fazie jego rozwoju. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań
czasu do zapalenia poprzez zapłon i samozapłon wybranych gatunków drewna (sosnowego,
bukowego i dębowego). Do badań eksperymentalnych wykorzystano kalorymetr stożkowy.
Na próbki umieszczone poziomo w stosunku do radiatora oddziaływano strumienia ciepła o
natężeniu 20, 30 i 50 kW/m2. Zapłon inicjowano iskrą elektryczną. Badania dowiodły, że w
przypadku niższych wartości strumienia ciepła (20 i 30 kW/m2) różnice w czasach do
zapalenia poprzez zapłon i samozapłon były znaczne. Dla strumienia ciepła – 50 kW/m2
różnice były niewielkie.

Corresponding author:
Waldemar Jaskółowski,
The Main School of Fire Service
Faculty of Fire Safety Engineering
Department of Combustion and Fire Theory,
52/54 Słowackiego St.,
01-629 Warsaw,
Poland
e-mail: wjaskolowski@[Link]

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