{On the bottom of the page I list the burning flame colors when different elements are burning}.
So you have heard me speak of the fact that Retardants do nothing to a fire. Many like to regurgitate the same things they’ve been told over the past decades about retardants. “its not to stop the fire only to slow it down so we can get crews on it”, yeah right.
Now, with the video above (Taken on the Jakes/Midas Fires), pay particular attention to the fire behavor, around the 25 second mark into the video you can see the activity become less intense. At around the 43 second mark you can clearly see the entire line length become increasingly exothermic all at the same time. This is what I would expect one would observe when the temperatures have risen above the 500 deg C mark and the nitrogen is separating from the hydrogen in an oxygen atmosphere, that is in a NON Inert atmosphere.
So lets think about this for a moment shall we.
In 1972 Charles George, a research scientist for the USFS, produced a report titled. Effects of Ammonium Sulphate and Ammonium Phosphate on Flammability. He states in his introduction that the treating of fuels with retardants actually lower the required ignition temperatures. This is found for yourselves in the accompanying document.
The following Is stated on the abstract. (3rd line last paragraph).
This is further supported by yet another study done a year earlier in report INT-90 titled “The Effects of Ammonium Sulphate and Ammonium Phosphate on the pyrolisys and combustion of cellulose, 1971. the following screen shots are taken and reproduced here:
Now sofar sound great in theory, the problem is that they are using fuel sample sizes that are literally .021” in diameter by 3” in length. So in my own opinion, of course the rate of spread would be greatly diminished, there’s nothing left fuel wise at that small of a sample size.
* .021” is literally smaller than 1/16th of an inch (.0625), this equates to a fuel sample size that is actually 2.97 times SMALLER than 1/16th of an inch. Can you understand my thinking about this type of rationalle being used when it is not even being testing on actual fuel samples we encounter that actually carry and hold the heat we fight?
In the footnotes, pay particular attention to #2 above. An enlargement is below.
This means that they infused the combustion chamber at the lab with 100cc’s of Nitrogen, i.e. 6.102 cubic inches, per minute to control the reaction. This is stated in this report on page 3 of the original numbering system, or page 8 of the PDF version. I would further point out that the report states as you can see highlighted that they had to develop a new method to test due to the “highly exothermic reaction”. For anyone that simply has never studied this, the term exothermic means:
Exothermic:
In a chemical reaction, this term describes the process of energy (usually in the form of heat) being released from the reaction and transferred to the surroundings.
When the term “highly exothermic” is used, it often means a substantial amount of heat is being released.
And the test was conducted in an Inert Atmosphere. Okay, so what is an inert atmosphere you may ask? Well, the vacuum of space would be a fine example!
Just so we are clear, treating fuels with retardant does NOT create that inert atmosphere, if you ontain the report you will see they inject 100cc’s or 6.102 cubic inches of Nitrogen per minute to “Control the Reaction”. Sorry but in my mind, this is useless because we simply cannot increase nitrogen to control our reactions of forest fire fuels. Furthermore, if we had any more nitrogen in the atmosphere we’d likely be dead.
The report of INT-90 is below:
Burning Colors and associated elements that have been found in Ammonium Phosphate:
Chromium produces Green
Cadmium productes Brown
Arsenic produces Pale Blue
Lead produces Blue-White
Copper produces Blue-Green
Vanadiuim produces Yellow-Green
Manganese produces Yellow-Green
When Ammonia is separated into constituent elements, nitrogen and hydrogen, then introduces to a flame, such as on a wildland fire, the flame color according to various reports is said to be a Yellow to yellowish green.
Antimony produces Pale Green
Barium produces Apple Green-Pale Green
Thalium produces Brilliant Green
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