Smoldering fires starting inside walls with no conductors within approx 10 feet of the fire,

[synchro]

This is just speculation, but I wonder if the sulfur and other compounds in Chinese drywall could cause sufficient oxidation reactions under high humidity to start a fire.

To be picky, I should've said sulfur based compounds since sulfur is an element and not a compound.

 

[WasGSOHM]

"The term “pyrophoric carbonization” refers to the alleged process by which “low- temperature, long-term heating of wood converts the wood to 'pyrophoric carbon' and that this pyrophoric carbon is much more readily ignitible than virgin wood.”

Alleged process? Doesn't anyone know? How hard can it be for a reputable lab to collect evidence confirming or denying this?

 

[hbiss]

Well, here is one investigation.

https://www.warrenforensics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PUBLICATION-Low_Temperature_Ignition_Wood-.pdf

Also, do you remember the topic I started a few weeks ago about not heating a tire rim because it can cause a chain reaction in the tire rubber leading to an explosion some time later? Wonder if this can be described as the same process?

-Hal

 

[WasGSOHM]

Well, here is one investigation.

Also, do you remember the topic I started a few weeks ago about not heating a tire rim because it can cause a chain reaction in the tire rubber leading to an explosion some time later?

Wonder if this can be described as the same process?

That is a good article, I'll have to chew on it.

I trust computer models more than court judgements, and I know there are models of how a fire progresses through a building.

A math model for current causing wood to change should be simpler because air currents are probably not involved, but this modeling effort might be in the article.

The advantage of a program that accurately predicts reality is that "time can be speeded up" or "run backward" if necessary.

Tires are mostly man-made so it seems to me that this is another process, maybe even more complex than igniting kiln-dried wood over time.

In any case, I have to wonder what takes so long from the initial event to the outcome.
In electric circuits there is a "time constant", and so there seems to be one in solid materials also.
But I am not a Science of Materials guy.

I am reminded of a battleship that broke in half during cold weather while in the harbor.
Probably many people said "WTF???" on that day.
I hope by now they know why that sucker cracked in half. If not, it's not from lack of motivation.

 

[gadfly56]

"The term “pyrophoric carbonization” refers to the alleged process by which “low- temperature, long-term heating of wood converts the wood to 'pyrophoric carbon' and that this pyrophoric carbon is much more readily ignitible than virgin wood.”

Alleged process? Doesn't anyone know? How hard can it be for a reputable lab to collect evidence confirming or denying this?

I hate to be the grammar police, but the term is "pyrolytic" and the process is "pyrolysis". Pyrophoric means that something burns spontaneously in contact with air.

 

[WasGSOHM]

I read the paper and am satisfied with the authors showing Due Diligence.

Ask the court what they would consider "reliable evidence". This prevents them from moving the goalposts.

The insurance companies have money on this table. What do they say?
And the bulding codes?
And the lumber industry?

This smells of politics.

 

[steve66]

To be picky, I should've said sulfur based compounds since sulfur is an element and not a compound.

Not to be picky, but you also left out the "reduction" in "oxidation-reduction reactions".

You can't have one without the other.

OK, maybe I'm being picky

 

[gadfly56]

Not to be picky, but you also left out the "reduction" in "oxidation-reduction reactions".

You can't have one without the other.

OK, maybe I'm being picky

If you want to be real jargonny, chemists and chemical engineers call them "re-dox reactions".

 

[synchro]

If you want to be real jargonny, chemists and chemical engineers call them "re-dox reactions".

It's been a long long time since I had to balance any equations for redox reactions.