Flammability characterisation of grassland species of Songhua Jiang-Nen Jiang Plain (China) using thermal analysis

The aim of this work was to study the flammability of grassland fuels of the Songhua Jiang-Nen Jiang Plain in China. A Pyris Diamond TG-DTG was used, and the grassland materials examined were Aneurolepidium chinense, Chloris virgata, Phragmites communis, Suaeda corniculata, Lathyrus quinquenervius, Hemarthria japonica, Puccinellia chinampoensis, Calamagrostis epigejos, Medicago ruthenica and Lespedeza davurica. These species are very common in the Songhua Jiang-Nen Jiang Plain, and are frequently devastated by wildland fires. Mass loss is an important index for modelling wildland fires and for fire hazard studies on biomass fuels. In the TG-DTG curves, evaporation of a moisture peak and two dominating thermal oxidative degradation peaks were recorded. The relative data determined was used to compare the ignitability, combustibility and sustainability of the species. An index of integrated flammability was calculated for the examined species, and the relative flammability was ranked in the order: Medicago ruthenica>Suaeda corniculata>Lespedeza davurica>Lathyrus quinquenervius>Chloris virgata>Hemarthria japonica>Puccinellia chinampoensis>Phragmites communis>Calamagrostis epigejos>Aneurolepidium chinense. The flammability ranking of these natural fuels can be used in grassland fire management planning, fire behaviour modelling and fire hazard assessment.

► TG/DTG analysis was used to study the flammability of grassland species.
► Mass loss of cellulose decomposition has a negative correlation with the ash content.
► Mass loss of lignin decomposition has a positive correlation with the heat content.
► Ignitability, combustibility and sustainability of fuels were measured by TGA curves.
► We developed an integrated model to calculate the global flammability.