Title：Dripping Flames and Ignition by Plastic Droplets

Speaker: 

Dr. Xinyan Huang

Dept of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Time: May 9th (Thursday) 15:00

Location:B-518, Lee Shau Kee Building of Science and Technology

Host: Prof. Yu Cheng Liu

Abstract:

Dripping of molten thermoplastics is a widely observed building fire phenomenon, especially in cable fires and facade fires. These hot molten droplets often carry a flame, fall on other flammable materials, and ignite a new fire, posing a significant fire hazard. The dripping ignition is a dynamic process and involves multiple fuels, different from conventional ignition processes. Microgravity experiments also show that the burning of plastic droplet is over-estimated because of bubbling, burst and ejection. This talk will share the latest research on determining the risk of dripping fires, propose a new theory for the dripping ignition process, and explore the safety measures for dripping fire hazards.

Bio:

Dr Xinyan Huang is an Associate Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD from Imperial College London, MSc from UC San Diego and BEng from Southeast University. Before moving to HK, Dr Huang was a Postdoc at UC Berkeley and worked with NASA on microgravity combustion. Dr Huang has co-authored over 200 journal papers on combustion and fire research. He served as an Associate Editor of International Journal of Wildland Fire and Fire Technology, and a board member of International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) and International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). He is a winner of the NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund, Bernard Lewis Fellowship and Sugden Best Paper Award from the Combustion Institute, Ricardo Award from the Institute of Physics, and Early Career Award from IAFSS.

供稿人：黄鑫炎

审核人：刘有晟、游小清