Prediction Model of Piloted Ignition Time for Thermoplastic Material

The objective of this paper was to develop a prediction model to determine the ignition time of the thermoplastic material. Two different heat transfer mechanisms in the condensed phase and melting phase were taken into account in the model. The duration of phase change was also calculated using the melting enthalpy. The commercial Polypropylene (PP) was selected as testing material to verify the developed model. In the cone calorimeter tests, the PP samples with four different thicknesses, were tested under three different external heat fluxes, i.e., 20, 35 and 50 kW/m2. The calculated and measured ignition times were compared and reasonable agreements were obtained. The comparative results show that the developed model gives more reasonable predicted ignition time.