Terence Southard with Roger Quinn, Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Design, fabrication and testing of a new limiting oxygen index device
The Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI) is one of an array of commonly used metrics for the rating of material flammability. Although devices to measure this value are commercially available, this work aims to design, fabricate, and validate an extension of these commercially available devices to a wider parameter space of interest to fundamental fire research. A literature review of current designs will be performed. The student will then design and build an improved device with both commercially available and custom fabricated parts where appropriate. An analysis of the flow field and heat transfer within the device will be studied to understand the effect of sample position, forced convective flow rates, and buoyant flame entrainment. The device will be validated through a series of representative test cycles to demonstrate the capabilities of the improved design and compare with previous published data.