Prediction of the self-ignition temperature in lagging fires by means of isothermal calorimetry

Under certain circumstances, contamination of a porous insulation material by a combustible liquid may result in a lagging/insulation fire. In the current study, a method based on isothermal calorimetry and modelling to estimate the risk of a lagging fire, or a maximum insulation thickness for a certain system temperature, is presented. The studied system was a combination of mineral wool and rapeseed oil. Full-scale tests were performed to determine suitable ignition criteria and to validate the results from the isothermal calorimetry tests and modelling. We contaminated the lagging using two methods – a direct method and a solvent method. These methods were evaluated in the full-scale tests. The solvent method resulted in more repeatable results than the direct method, where the contaminant was poured on the insulation. Using the calorimetric measurements, we estimated the parameters for the kinetic equation. This result was used to estimate the self-ignition temperature of contaminated lagging installed on a pipe. We found that a temperature increase of 40 °C was a reasonable ignition criterion when modelling.