Experimental Study of Flame Spread on Conveyor Belts in a Small-Scale Tunnel

Details

• Personal Author:
  Litton, Charles D. ; Yuan L
• Description:
  This paper presents experimental results for conveyor belt flame spread from tests conducted in a small-scale tunnel. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of belt type, ventilation velocity, belt surface-to-roof distance and ignition source power on the flame spread properties. The tunnel used was 4.9 m long by 0.46 m square with the ventilation velocity ranging from 0.7 to 3.2 m/s. The ignition source was an impinged methane jet burner with heat output ranging from 7 to 21 kW. The belts tested included non-fire resistant rubber belts, fire-resistant rubber belts, fire-resistant neoprene belt and fire resistant PVC belt with belt samples measuring 0.23 m wide by 2.5 m long. Experimental results show that with a ventilation velocity of 1.02 m/s all conveyor belts could be ignited, and that with sufficient ignition source power, flames spread the full length of the belt sample. The data showed a coupling effect of the ventilation air velocity and the belt surface-to-roof distance on the flame spread rate. For instance, flames could not spread with a ventilation velocity higher than 1.52 m/s and a surface-to-roof distance of 0.22 m. The use of the measured CO/CO2 ratio as an indicator of combustion stoichiometry is also discussed. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Fires Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Fire-hazards Fire-prevention Fire-resistant-materials Mining-equipment Mining-industry
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Interscience Communications
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20031658
• Citation:
  Fire and Materials 2007 -10th International Conference, January 29-31, 2007, San Francisco, California. London: Interscience Communications, 2007 Feb; :1-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0f79d2c0d10a9af607b408167ab31d5160e529144b42f2a447d31219ca88adeb5e167523d34a8b8c9958cd2f702c28d7eb7f0d723be55cd68162cecbce867bb2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226729/cdc_226729_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.11 MB ]