Fire point
Encyclopedia
The fire point of a fuel
is the temperature at which it will continue to burn for at least 5 seconds after ignition by an open flame. At the flash point
, a lower temperature, a substance will ignite briefly, but vapor might not be produced at a rate to sustain the fire. Most tables of material properties will only list material flash points, but in general the fire points can be assumed to be about 10ºC higher than the flash points. However, this is no substitute for testing if the fire point is safety critical.
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
is the temperature at which it will continue to burn for at least 5 seconds after ignition by an open flame. At the flash point
Flash point
The flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air. Measuring a flash point requires an ignition source...
, a lower temperature, a substance will ignite briefly, but vapor might not be produced at a rate to sustain the fire. Most tables of material properties will only list material flash points, but in general the fire points can be assumed to be about 10ºC higher than the flash points. However, this is no substitute for testing if the fire point is safety critical.