Abstract: In order to explore the influence of ventilation conditions on smoldering process, the influence of longitudinal ventilation velocity on the smoldering establishment time, smoldering speed, smoldering temperature and quality loss in forward smoldering process of Larch sawdust were studied in the paper by using a small smoldering test furnace. The results show that under different ventilation wind velocity, the establishment time of smoldering does not display any apparent difference, but the total average smoldering speed increases obviously with the increase of ventilation wind velocity; along the smoldering propagation direction, the average smoldering speed at different positions presents the trend of first increasing and then decreasing, and the smoldering temperature presents the trend of first increasing and then decreasing; when the ventilation velocity is zero, the smoldering temperature reaches the maximum of 451.9 o C. Moreover, the mass loss rate and the final residual mass of sawdust increase with the increase of ventilation velocity. The results can provide some reference for the prevention of smoldering fire.

Key words: longitudinal ventilation, wind velocity, sawdust, forward smoldering