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Autoignition Temperature Derivation


lyadalachanc

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Activation energy is not required.

It is just a standard bit of engineering.

If you place a sample of combustible material at temperature T0 < less than its auto ignition temperature into an airstream which is at Tig (or above though the equation does not allow for this possibility) then heat will be transferred from the air to the body.

If the air temperature is < Tig then the sample will never be raised to a sufficient temperature to ignite.
So we can measure Tig by having an air source that we can steadily raise the temperature of until ignition occurs.

This heat transfer will depend upon the surface area of the sample since it is only necessary to ignite the surface layer, not to heat up the entire sample to Tig

For combustion to then be self sustaining it is necessary for the heat of combustion to be sufficient to raise interior parts of the sample to Tig

This will be where the 4pi factor comes in - it is the surface area to voume ratio of a sphere.

Obviously the density and heat capacity are specified in terms of mass.

 

Does this help?

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