APPLICATION OF THERMODYNAMIC AND DETAILED CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING TO UNDERSTANDING COMBUSTION PRODUCT GENERATION IN ENCLOSURE FIRES

Experiments in idealized two-layer fire environments have demonstrated that concentrations of carbon monoxide and other gaseous combustion p roducts can be correlated in terms of the global equivalence ratio. In this paper the results of detailed chemical kinetic modeling and equi librium calculations are used to gain insight into the chemical stabil ity of the gases observed within the upper layers of such fires. It is demonstrated that the production of upper-layer gases is kinetically controlled and that for rich conditions concentrations of the upper-la yer gas components are far from those expected for thermodynamic equil ibrium at the layer temperatures. Criteria are provided for determinin g whether or not the correlations can be employed to predict the gener ation of combustion products in enclosure fires.