Radiant heat and the impact on combustibles
So you may have heard me talk about clearances to combustibles once or twice before but here is a quick example of what the heat does to combustibles and how it can start a fire. As heat is absorbed by a combustible, in the form of radiant heat, it slowly breaks down the ignition temperature that is needed to ignite the combustible. the process is called pyrolysis which is the thermal decomposition of a material through elevated heat. Ignition temperature of wood can drop to as low as 300 degrees after long-term exposure to heat! One very key thing to also remember with ignition of the combustible is that it will ignite without any direct contact with flame. Here is a example in fast forward: 1. Initial break down of wood from heat As you can see, the Wood is not touching any flame throughout the timeframe. 2. Ignition temperature … Continued