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Java Applet for Flame Spread Calculations in the Microgravity Regime
Subrata (Sooby) Bhattacharjee and Richard Ayala
Description of the Microgravity Flame Spread Rate Formulas
This Applet calculates the Flame Spread Rate for Horizontal Flame Spread over Solid Fuels in an Opposing Forced Gas Flow in Fully Developed Channel using the formulas developed by Bhattacharjee et al. [see reference below].

This model requires as inputs: Physical parameters (V_g, p_amb, yo2_amb, tau etc.), ambient properties of the oxidizer (mixture of Oxygen and Nitrogen), properties of solid fuels ( PMMA and Cellulose properties are default), and model configuration parameters (see below).

Calculations produce various spread rate parameters and spread rates from a variety of formulas including the above formulas.
 
User Instructions:
Click the "Initialize" button to retrieve the default properties and modify them to match the conditions of interest. Please browse downward, the applet will appear below in a box in about 30 sec. If you see a gray box or just an "X" in place of the applet, please download java from www.java.com and try again.
Click the "Calculate" button to calculate spread rate and other dependent parameters. 
Spread Rate Calculator in the Microgravity and Thermal Regime (Any Thickness)
Examples:
Example #1: How do you find the flame spread rate over a horizontal PMMA having a half thickness of 7.5 micrometer in a quiescent microgravity environment of 50% oxygen and 50% nitrogen by volume at 1 atm?

Enter xO2=50%, pAmb=101 kPa, g=0, Vg=0, tau=7.5 micro-m. Leave everything else to default. Click the Calculate button.

Switch to the Spread Rates panel by clicking the Spread Rates button. There, you will find the spread rate calculated by various formulas. Vf_thin de Ris= 71.9 mm/s. Our prediction is Vfthin_RS=47.05 mm/s (this is also displayed in the bottom panel as Vf_scale). The experimental result from Japan's MGLAB fo r the corresponding case is 39.1 mm/s.


Example #2:Repeat Ex-1 for normal gravity downward spread.
Change g to 9.81 m/s^2 and Calculate
The new spread rate is calculated as 50.84 mm/s. Note that Vf_de Ris remains unchanged at 71.9 mm/s as expected (Vf being independent of Vg for thin fuel). The experimental value for this condition is 55.1 mm/s.         . 
Related Paper:[15] Bhattacharjee, S., Ayala, R., Wakai, K., Takahashi, S., Proceed. of the Comb. Inst., Vol. 30, (2004).