Fuel-Limited Fire

10/18/18

“How does a basic open-air fire develop?”

Depending on environmental conditions, fires develop in many different ways. The one that firefighters are first taught is often the simplest case. In this scenario, a couch is burned in an open lot, and the temperature curve can be seen by the image above. First, the object combusts, and the temperature begins to rise. It eventually reaches a maximum temperature and stays that way until the fire becomes less potent and cools off. This is known as a Fuel-Limited Fire and is one of the most famous fire curves in the world.

Image credit aemstatic-ww1.azureedge.ne

Plate Heat Exchangers

10/09/18

“What is a more efficient heat exchanger design?”

Heat exchangers come in all shapes and sizes. But how could we make a more efficient design? Well, what if we were to have a series of long metal plates with holes on their four corners, with one pipe carrying a hot fluid moving through one and another one carrying cold fluid moving through the other. Let’s allow for the heat to transfer between these two plates also. By allowing this to occur, we can warm up one fluid while cooling the other one very efficiently. These are known as Plate Heat Exchangers and are commonly applied in building HVAC.

Image credit youtube.