Citation

Xie D, Shan G, Deng S, Liu Y. Fire Mater. 2017; 41(6): 614-624.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/fam.2395

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Copper is among the most frequently found metallic residues in fire scene environment. Investigations on the thermal patterns produced on copper after fire scene exposure can provide important physical evidence for fire cause/origin determination. In this paper, the high temperature oxidation behaviors and the accompanying micro-structural changes of pure copper have been studied in air and laboratory simulated kerosene-combustion atmospheres at 600-800 °C. The oxidation kinetics, morphologies and microstructures of the oxide scales-substrate were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffractions. The results reveal that the increasing temperature can significantly affect the oxide properties and modify the substrate metallurgical microstructure. Especially, the presence of kerosene in the environmental atmosphere has caused accelerated oxidation and produced oxide scales different from those formed in air alone. These feature evolutions in surface oxides and substrate are expected to offer complementary insight on determining the fire characteristics, such as the exposure temperature, time period and whether liquid accelerant is involved. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

fire investigation; metallographic analysis; metals; oxidation