Journal of Fire Sciences http://jfs.sagepub.

com/

A Possible Analog of the Lewis Number for Gases in a Porous Medium

J.C. Jones Journal of Fire Sciences 2008 26: 213 DOI: 10.1177/0734904107082243 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jfs.sagepub.com/content/26/3/213

Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com

Additional services and information for Journal of Fire Sciences can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jfs.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jfs.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jfs.sagepub.com/content/26/3/213.refs.html

>> Version of Record - May 14, 2008 What is This?

Downloaded from jfs.sagepub.com at Latvian Univ of Agriculture on January 21, 2014

A Possible Analog of the Lewis Number for Gases in a Porous Medium

J. C. JONES*
Department of Engineering, University of Aberdeen
(Received June 28, 2007)

The interesting paper on gypsum board [1] in a recent issue of this journal concludes with a statement that in a room fire where walls are constructed of gypsum board, diffusion of hot gases and vapors through the gypsum board will play a part in heat transfer supplementary to conduction through the board. It is also stated that further work on this is planned and the present author offers the following point of possible interest. In a doctoral thesis he supervised many years ago [2] (most of the results from which were reported in JFS: [3,4]) both thermal diffusivity (usual symbol , units m2 s1) and diffusion coefficient for air (usual symbol D, units m2 s1) were measured for packed beds of forest litter. The point was made in [2] that the quotient:  D is dimensionless and for gases is called the Lewis number, after Bernard Lewis. Lewis numbers for gases are of the order of unity. It was asserted in [2] that the counterpart of the Lewis number for a gas-phase system had been determined for a system whereby heat and mass are being transferred through a porous solid, and values for various packing densities of the solid were presented and found to be quite distant from unity.
*E-mail: j.c.jones@abdn.ac.uk JOURNAL
OF

FIRE SCIENCES, VOL. 26 May 2008

213

0734-9041/08/03 02132 $10.00/0 DOI: 10.1177/0734904107082243 SAGE Publications 2008 Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore

Downloaded from jfs.sagepub.com at Latvian Univ of Agriculture on January 21, 2014

214

J. C. JONES

Were this concept to be extended to the work in [1], the thermal diffusivity could be determined using crushed gypsum board and the simple experimental method involving heating and cooling described by the present author (e.g., [5]) and applied by him to materials as diverse as coals, cereal granules, and upholstery materials. The diffusion coefficient D would be more challenging to determine experimentally. However, a reasonable estimate could be obtained by calculation from knowledge of the particle density of the gypsum and the bulk density of the gypsum board using the method originally attributed to Penman, described in full by Bowes [6]. The present author hopes that the authors of [1] will take these ideas on board as they follow very naturally from a point raised in [2] which was never followed up, yet merits attention; that is, the extent to which an analog of the Lewis number for a porous medium is helpful in understanding the interplay of mass and heat transfer in such a medium.

REFERENCES
1. Wakili, K.G., Hugi, E., Wullschleger, L. and Frank, T. (2007). Gypsum Board in Fire Modelling and Experimental Validation, Journal of Fire Sciences, 25: 267282. 2. Ramahti, H. (1995). Ignition and Combustion Properties of Australian Forest Materials, PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney. 3. Jones, J.C., Bridges, R.G., Rahmati, H., Fowler, D. and Vorasurayakarnt, J. (1990). The Self-heating and Thermal Ignition Propensity of Forest Floor Litter, Journal of Fire Sciences, 8: 207223. 4. Jones, J.C., Wake, G.C. and Rahmati, H. (1991). The Unpiloted Ignition of Eucalyptus Leaves Treated as a Parallel Reaction System, Journal of Fire Sciences, 9: 311329. 5. Jones, J.C. (1998). Measured Thermal Diffusivities of Upholstery Materials, Journal of Fire Sciences, 16: 327334. 6. Bowes, P.C. (1984). Self-heating: Evaluating and Controlling the Hazards, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

BIOGRAPHY Clifford Jones Clifford Jones is Reader in Engineering at the University of Aberdeen. He has over 25 years experience in the area and about four publications including seven books. He holds the blue ribbon degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Leeds.

Downloaded from jfs.sagepub.com at Latvian Univ of Agriculture on January 21, 2014