This book provides an overview of the initiation of combustion processes of polymeric materials. It presents physicochemical processes associated with heating as well as numerical methods for initiation parameter calculation. In addition, the book describes thermal degradation of polymers and the effect of an incident heat flux on initiation time. It then highlights the most commonly used devices for measuring the time to ignition using external heat sources. The target group of this book are scientists and researchers dealing with materials combustion and also graduates and practitioners focused on fire protection.

Autorentext

Dr. Peter Rantuch currently works as an associate professor at the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. He earned the title engineer in the field of Fire Protection in 2009 and obtained his doctorate degree in 2012 majored in fire safety and fire protection. His interest focuses on physical and chemical processes during the combustion and extinguishing processes and the thermal decomposition of combustible materials, especially oxygen consumption calorimetry.