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Plants' response to fire tested
September 25, 2009A team from the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA) has developed a new method for identifying the flammability of plant species by using a device that measures how construction materials react to fire. The technique, which is being presented this week at the Fifth Spanish Forestry Congress, can be used to improve fire risk maps.
A group of researchers from the Forest Fires Laboratory (CIFOR-INIA) has applied a "mass loss calorimeter" - a device used to study how construction materials respond to fire - to forestry samples. "This allows us to study the flammability of plant species", Javier Madrigal Olmo, one of the study's authors, tells SINC.
The flammability trials measure the speed at which combustion starts and develops, as well as the amount of heat emitted by the sample during the process.
In order to measure these data, the researchers first put the plant sample in a special basket, "which is unique in the world", and which simulates natural conditions. The material heats up "constantly and uniformly" with a conical heater, and the gases rise up through a chimney, with a "thermopile" at the end, which registers the heat emitted.
"This methodology gives a very good reflection of how combustion takes place in conditions more like those found in the field, which is why we suggest it could be used to improve the classification systems (league tables, risk indices and flammability maps used in the Spanish autonomous regions), which to date have been based on tests that provide less information, or on those carried out in laboratory conditions far removed from reality", Madrigal tells SINC. "This would allow forestry managers to prioritize their preventive actions according to the tree species in the area".
The creators of this technique, which is being presented in Ávila this Thursday at the Spanish Forestry Congress, have shown that flammability varies according to the humidity of the sample and the type of species. For example, it is higher for the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) than the Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), while the flammability of this species is higher still than that of the Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera).
Madrigal says that one of the investigation strands within climate change research focuses on how global temperature increase will affect plant physiology, "and this is influenced by factors such as humidity, and related to flammability".
The research has been published recently in the Journal of Fire Sciences and has been carried out as part of the EU's Sixth Framework Program FIRE PARADOX project, which is backing the development of new methods to prevent and extinguish forest fires using "innovative and integrated" approaches.
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
In order to measure these data, the researchers first put the plant sample in a special basket, "which is unique in the world", and which simulates natural conditions. The material heats up "constantly and uniformly" with a conical heater, and the gases rise up through a chimney, with a "thermopile" at the end, which registers the heat emitted.
"This methodology gives a very good reflection of how combustion takes place in conditions more like those found in the field, which is why we suggest it could be used to improve the classification systems (league tables, risk indices and flammability maps used in the Spanish autonomous regions), which to date have been based on tests that provide less information, or on those carried out in laboratory conditions far removed from reality", Madrigal tells SINC. "This would allow forestry managers to prioritize their preventive actions according to the tree species in the area".
The creators of this technique, which is being presented in Ávila this Thursday at the Spanish Forestry Congress, have shown that flammability varies according to the humidity of the sample and the type of species. For example, it is higher for the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) than the Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), while the flammability of this species is higher still than that of the Kermes oak (Quercus coccifera).
Madrigal says that one of the investigation strands within climate change research focuses on how global temperature increase will affect plant physiology, "and this is influenced by factors such as humidity, and related to flammability".
The research has been published recently in the Journal of Fire Sciences and has been carried out as part of the EU's Sixth Framework Program FIRE PARADOX project, which is backing the development of new methods to prevent and extinguish forest fires using "innovative and integrated" approaches.
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
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Fire must be accounted for as an integral part of climate change, according to 22 authors of an article published in the April 24 issue of the journal Science. The authors determined that intentional deforestation fires alone contribute up to one-fifth of the human-caused increase in emissions of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that raises global temperature.
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Chemicals used as fire retardants could be harmful, UC-Riverside researchers say
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NJIT chemists cook up new strain of carbon nanotubes
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Study: Nanotech processing 'greener' than oil refining
Using a method for assessing the premiums that companies pay for insurance, a team of scientists and insurance experts have concluded that the manufacturing processes for five, near-market nanomaterials - including quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs - present fewer risks to the environment than some common industrial processes like oil refining.
First diesel military motorcycle to hit the road
A unique technology partnership between Cranfield University and California-based Hayes Diversified Technologies (HDT) has created the world's first production diesel military motorbike - and the first bike of any kind with a purpose-designed diesel power unit.
Tobacco industry lied about its ability to produce fire-safe cigarettes
The tobacco industry lied about its ability to produce fire safe cigarettes, and for 25 years thwarted legislation to impose mandatory safety standards for cigarettes, reveals research in Tobacco Control. The findings are based on a trawl of around 200 industry documents, which have only become publicly available since 1998. Cigarettes account for an estimated 30 per cent of all fire deaths in the USA, which boasts one of the highest rates of fire deaths in the world. Worldwide, cigarette fires account for one in 10 fire deaths. Philip Morris introduced fire safe technology into one of its brands in 2000, although it began testing a very similar product in 1985, and had already concluded in
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