SELECTED OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMBUSTION OF CHARCOAL BRIQUETS UTILIZED FOR THE OUTDOOR PREPARATION OF FOOD IV. PROCEDURES AND RELATIONSHIPS FOR ACCURATE REACTION KINETICS CORRELATIONS

摘要

This work represents a continuation of the investigation of charcoal briquet combustion, the first three parts of which were reported upon at the Twenty-Ninth International Pyrotechnics Seminar. The prime objective of the current effort was to obtain more accurate reaction kinetics correlations than was previously possible. For this purpose, a smaller version of the Weber covered-kettle grill served as the semi-batch reactor in which a batch of charcoal briquets combusted in a steady stream of fresh air entering through the inlet dampers. The grill was positioned on a sensitive heavy-duty analytical balance, which permitted accurate measurements of the weight loss due to the briquet combustion. A platinum immersion probe was inserted through the outlet port in the lid and was utilized to simultaneously measure the temperature of the air space inside the kettle. This manuscript thus represents the fourth part of our report, discusses the experimental methodology in detail, and summarizes the reaction kinetics expressions that were derived previously. Material balance equations to include the influence of the ash in the overall weight fraction of the briquets consumed are derived and discussed. Experimental measurements on the combustion of the charcoal briquets will provide input data to these relationships in the subsequent manuscript.