Study of minimum flash-point behavior for ternary mixtures of flammable solvents

Flash point is one of the most important variables used to assess fire and explosion hazard of flammable liquids. Binary mixtures exhibiting minimum flash point behavior has been verified to be existed. In real processes, multi-component solutions are more frequently encounted than binary systems. However, the minimum flash point behavior of multi-component mixture is not discussed in literature. This study intended to study the minimum flash point behavior for ternary mixtures. The ternary solutions, IPA + ethanol + octane, 2-butnaol + ethanol + octane, cyclohexanol + ethanol + octane, were selected as examples to investigate the minimum flash point behavior of ternary solutions in this study, The experimental data were compared with the simulation of flash point prediction model. Three different type of minimum flash point behavior were observed for the studied solutions, they provided the examples for the classification of minimum flash points solutions for ternary mixtures, and can be applied in hazard assessment and hazard reduction in the fire and explosion for flammable solvents. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Beijing Institute of Technology.