Citation

Handa T, Nagashima T, Takahashi Y, Suda K, Ebihara N, Saito F. Fire Safety J. 1978; 1(4-5): 265-272.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The characterization of the behaviour of smokes from several flame-retarded or slow-burning plastics was pursued on the basis of the size distributions of particulates in the smokes or their time-dependent changes. The sizing instrument was a Hitachi TSI 500 type optical counter with He---Ne laser as the light source, and the range of the size fractions was from 0.1 to 10 [mu]m in terms of channel isolation by nine steps. Halogens from the flame retardant seemed to decelerate the coagulation of smokes accimulated in the smoke box, while they worked as an accelerator to produce bigger particulates in the nascent state. Phosphates acted as a strong accelerator for the coagulation of smokes from phenolic laminates. It was recognized on the basis of the pattern in the size distribution that the thick smokes from polyurethane and ABS resin came from the formation of the bigger diameter particulates by the coagulation of the sooty particulates owing to the lack of oxygen in their combustion. In addition, the time-dependent changes of the turbidities of smokes were pursued in terms of the volume surface diameters of their size distributions.