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Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2008, 9(8), 1416-1423; doi:10.3390/ijms9081416
Article

Measurement of Electrical Conductivity for a Biomass Fire

Kgakgamatso Mphale 1,* email and Mal Heron 2 email
1 Physics Department, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana 2 Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 7 April 2008; in revised form: 22 July 2008 / Accepted: 23 July 2008 / Published: 13 August 2008
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biofuels R&D: Securing the Planet's Future Energy Needs)
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Abstract: A controlled fire burner was constructed where various natural vegetation species could be used as fuel. The burner was equipped with thermocouples to measure fuel surface temperature and used as a cavity for microwaves with a laboratory quality 2- port vector network analyzer to determine electrical conductivity from S-parameters. Electrical conductivity for vegetation material flames is important for numerical prediction of flashover in high voltage power transmission faults research. Vegetation fires that burn under high voltage transmission lines reduce flashover voltage by increasing air electrical conductivity and temperature. Analyzer determined electrical conductivity ranged from 0.0058 - 0.0079 mho/m for a fire with a maximum temperature of 1240 K.
Keywords: biomass; forest fires; flashover; thermal ionization; alkalis.

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MDPI and ACS Style

Mphale, K.; Heron, M. Measurement of Electrical Conductivity for a Biomass Fire. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2008, 9, 1416-1423.

AMA Style

Mphale K., Heron M. Measurement of Electrical Conductivity for a Biomass Fire. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2008; 9(8):1416-1423.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mphale, Kgakgamatso; Heron, Mal. 2008. "Measurement of Electrical Conductivity for a Biomass Fire." Int. J. Mol. Sci. 9, no. 8: 1416-1423.

Int. J. Mol. Sci. EISSN 1422-0067 Published by MDPI Publishing, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert