Flammability refers to the high capacity for or ability to support combustion.

(MerriamWebster) A number of regulations have been established in order to manage the flammability hazards of different substances. These made it necessary to know the chemical properties related to flammability of different substances in order to determine the safe and optimal operating conditions for them. The properties that are used to determine flammability include the flash point, fire point, ignition temperature and the upper and lower flammability limits. (Speight, 2005) The upper and lower flammability limits are the boundary-line mixtures of the flammable vapor or gas with air, which when ignited, will propagate flame. It is measured in terms of percent volume of gas or vapor in air. These limits also have corresponding temperatures. The flash point is approximately equal to the temperature corresponding to the lower flammability limit. The flash point is the lowest temperature at which a substance produces sufficient vapor to form an ignitable mixture with air near its surface. The fire point on the other hand is the minimum temperature at which the generated flame becomes sustained. The ignition temperature is the lowest temperature at which a steady flame is generated independent of an external ignition sources or heat. (Speight, 2005) There are many methods to reliably measure the flash points of different substances and mixtures. The selection of a specific method is dependent upon the properties and characteristics of the sample

tested and the purpose of the testing. Some tests include: ASTM D3934-Test Method for Flash/No Flash Test--Equilibrium Method by a Closed-Cup Apparatus; ASTM D3828-Test Methods for Flash Point by Small Scale Closed Cup Tester; ASTM D3278-Test Methods for Flash Point of Liquids by Small Scale Closed-Cup Apparatus; ASTM D92Test Method for Flash and Fire Points by Cleveland Open Cup Tester; ASTM D1310Test Method for Flash Point and Fire Point of Liquids by Tag Open-Cup Apparatus. The properties which determine the flammability of substances are thermodynamic in nature. Being so, several models can be used in order to establish theoretical values for quantities such as the flash point To estimate the flash point of a binary mixture, the model used by Liaw et. al can be used:

[1]

where is the mole fraction, is the activity coefficient, is the saturation pressure at a certain temperature, and is the vapor pressure at the flash point. For a binary mixture of water and a flammable substance the lowest flash point exhibited by the mixture is the flash point of the flammable component, since water is not flammable. Thus for aqueous solutions equation [1] reduces to [2] where all variables are properties of the flammable component. In this form the

pressure at flash point can be isolated and inserted to the Antoine equation to get the temperature at flash point. [3] However to get the activity coefficient

must be first computed. There are different thermodynamic models that can be used in finding the activity coefficients of the components in the solution. These activity coefficients account for the non-ideality of the solution. The Margules equation [4], van Laar equation [5], and the Wilson equation [5] will be used in this paper. Margules equation, [ Van Laar equation, ] [4]

(
Wilson equation

[5]

(
( );

)
(

[6] )

where is the molar volume in cm3/mol, R is the universal gas constant, and T is the temperature in Kelvins. The theoretical flash points can now be compared to the experimental data. Source: http://www.astm.org/Standards/E502.htm