Abstract: A device for measuring the flux received by a specimen in fire test apparatuses has a copper disk or plate of the same dimensions and the same type of surface coating as a typical material specimen, an embedded heating coil and thermocouple, and an insulated sample holder similar to that used for a specimen. The transient response of the embedded thermocouple is measured for several different levels of imposed incident radiation without electrical heating and for several different known levels of electrical heating without any imposed radiation. The principle of Electrical Substitution Radiometry (ESR) is applied, and the transient responses to incident radiation and electrical heating under identical thermal conditions are compared to determine the amount of incident radiation that is actually absorbed by the device while it is being irradiated. The situations are kept thermally identical, thereby insuring that all effects due to heat losses (e.g. convection, radiation and conduction) are exactly the same.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for combustion of a gaseous fuel in which the gaseous fuel is preheated to form soot. The soot is mixed with an oxidant, the resulting soot/oxidant mixture being ignited to form a highly luminous flame.

Abstract: A bench-scale apparatus for measuring the heat-release rate of pyrolysis vapors of a material sample includes an oven having a heated chamber for receiving the sample, a flue and at least one entry port, a radiometer having a radiation sensor disposed in relation to the flue of the oven such that an area into which burning pyrolysis vapors are directed from the flue is adjacent to the radiation sensor, a fuel-gas control valve in communication with the entry port of the oven, and an electronic flow meter for measuring the amount of fuel-gas passing through the control valve, wherein signals from the radiometer operate the fuel-gas control valve to provide an amount of fuel-gas sufficient to maintain a flame of the vapors at a predetermined height, and wherein the meter measures the amount of fuel-gas such that the measurement of the meter is used to indicate the heat-release rate of the pyrolysis vapors.