Characteristics of flame spread over the surface of charring solid combustibles at high altitude

To explore the characteristics of flame spread over the surface of charring solid combustibles at high altitude, the whitewood with uniform texture was chosen to conduct a series of experiments in Lhasa and Hefei, with altitude of 3658 m and 50 m respectively. Several parameters, including the flame height, flame spread rate, flame temperature, surface temperature, were measured on samples with different width and inclinations. A quantitative analysis of flame spread characteristics over sample surface at high altitude was performed. Results showed that, in the environment of lower pressure and oxygen concentration at high altitude, the flame height and flame spread rate over sample surface decreased, but the flame temperature increased slightly. However, with increasing of sample width, the relative difference between the flame spread rates at different altitudes decreased. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50536030)