How can I do this experiment?

Question

How can I test a shrub/plant/leaf/barks - ignitiability, consumability, combustibility and sustainability.

Please also suggest which part of the shrub/tree I should test. eg. Leaf/bark/ sticks. I can only do small experiments, i can't burn down a whole tree.

This is for a college ecology experiment.

I want to test if an flammability rating system can be established.

Some of my thoughts.

- Hold match under leaf & test how long to ignite

- Throw/Drop match onto plant

- Weigh plants to be exact same weight and put into a flask where a match will be dropped in.

- See how long it will burn for

Please help, drop off any comments as well if you can't think of an answer.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Weigh plants to a constant weight, set each on fire, measurre the temparature of the flame, the endurance, the remains (chemically), and if possible the energy (in joules, 1 cm cu of water, how much it heats)

Answer 2

If you can get enough material, it would be good to divide it into

stem with bark, stem stripped, bark alone

(Make one of each for old growth and new growth)

leaf old, leaf new young (neither dried though).

for better experiment, do with 2 different plants, for comparison (suggest 1 evergreen and 1 decidious) (or one hardwood one softwood if using trees).

Use a candle for regularity of flame (and not messing up the timings by dropping it when your fingers get burnt lol).

Time with stop watch. Mark first sign of smoke, first sign of glowing embers, time to actual flame (if any)

Hold the item in tongs, to get a set distance from the flame and leave your hands free for the stopwatch etc. If you want to proceed to total destruction, put them in a METAL strainer from hardware or dollar shop.

Tape record a readout of the times and play it back later, is easiest : '13 secs smoke, 18 secs cinder 29 secs flame 49 secs smoulder"

With the plant above the flame you get a fair amount of air flow to create fire; dropping fire onto them may not do anything. If you want to test that, use a large cotton-wool ball dampened (and wrung out) with an accelerant like lighter fluid, or methylated spirits. DO NOT use gasoline. Use the same amount (probably teaspoon) of accelerant for each. Hold with tongs to light, place onto the test material.

Do this outdoors, as cotton-wool  balls often contain rayon, which gives toxic fumes. Have the material on a container like a metal jar lid. If you have time, repeat with identical material  inside a washed-out food tin, to see the difference air supply makes.

This is 8 items per plant, 2 plant types = 16 items, each with 3 combustion methods. That should be more than enough for an experiment.

Your results will show time to ignite (if any),time taken for burning up (use small pieces!) OR self-extinguishing, under various conditions.

Keep same parts the same size (eg sticks, leaves) for fair comparison between the same part of several plants. Keep the same weights, for fair comparison between parts.

One very small branch per shrub/tree would supply more than enough material.