A special type of calorimeter device is used to detect the rate of self-heating of a substance. This method is called acceleration rate calorimetry. The sample is heated step by step to an isothermal temperature using the so-called heating-standby-search method. Heating-standby-search is a measurement method used in calorimeter devices according to the accelerating calorimeter. At each isothermal step, the rate of temperature change of the sample is monitored without input by the heaters of the calorimeter. If such a temperature rise is detected, it is defined as self-heating of the sample. As soon as the self-heating rate exceeds the exothermic threshold, a decomposition reaction is detected.
In general, the self-heating rate is calculated as the difference between the maximum temperature after heating and the first cell temperature divided by the time to reach 5 degrees.
Thermal analysis is recognized as an efficient method for analyzing thermal degradation reactions of different types of materials. This technique is widely used in different fields. Among them, the science of fire, where polymeric materials are so common, has a special problem because of the repeated combustion reactions in these analyses. Thermal analysis has different properties depending on the material being studied. For example, polymeric materials undergo different degradation reactions that are highly dependent on the definition of thermal analysis boundary conditions. The following standards published by the International Standards Organization (ISO) describe how to set up these boundary conditions:
There are some inconsistencies between standards when it comes to the initial sample mass amount. For example, the standards recommend a sample mass of between 10 and 100 mg for TG and between 2 and 40 mg for DSC. This difference causes different results from the tests. It also indicates the influence on the results of sample thicknesses, carrier gas and heating rates, with respect to the thermal and thermo-oxidative degradation of polymers. However, it does not analyze the effect of self-heating as it is for hazardous materials.
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