The flammable resistance method for mixture flammability. (September 2018) - Ma, Tingguang
Abstract: Le Chatelier's rule is known for its inability to treat the contribution of a diluent in a flammable mixture. This is not true if we treat the diluent as a flammable resistor with a fictitious lower flammable limit as its signature resistance. Thus the diluent in the mixture can be treated consistently along with other fuels like electrical resistors in parallel. Strictly derived from the thermal balance method, this flammable resistance method has the principle of energy conservation embedded with each energy term additive in the denominator. Like an electrical circuit, the mixture flammable limit serves as the total resistance of a parallel circuit, thereby sharing a simple form with Ohm's Law. This method completes Le Chatelier's rule in dealing with mixtures of multiple fuels and diluents. Highlights: A systematic framework for incorporating both contributions of diluents and fuels is developed. Physical meaning for each flux term is explained with a direct analogy to the electrical parallel circuit. Several fuels were tested for the validation of this method. A mixture safety problem is solved with this method, for showing its simplicity and straightforwardness.