Sun Mar 26, 2017 5:43 pm by MartinHewitt
I am now in George Price's book at the chapter where he describes the fire insulation based on alum and wood dust. The alum is releasing crystal water somewhere in the range of 60°C - 200°C. The argument is, that humidity inside the safe prevents that the temperature goes above 100°C. For this the water released by the alum must go through some openings of the safe interior lining and condense there. Water has a high enthalpy of vaporization and bound to alum probably even more. So yes the water released from alum is cooling the safe filling. If it is then going to the inside of the safe and condensing there it is in fact moving the energy (of the cooling of the wall) to the interior and heating it up. That doesn't sound that helpful, but Price was convinced of it. So did I miss something and the water inside the safe helps to cool it? Is alum still used for fire protection?