Pasted and Unpasted Wallpaper Gross Calorific Values

[ryanfire]

Hi guys,

I've been doing some research into building materials and their calorific values.

I came across the fact that the gross calorific value of unpasted wallpaper is higher than that of pasted wallpaper, which is strange considering the addition of an adhesive to the latter samples? I would have expected pasted wallpaper to have a higher gross calorific value.

Anyone know why this is?

Thanks in advance.

 

[IRstuff]

By how much?

Paste potentially has two effects:
> Incorporated water, which would reduce the gross calorific value, since it takes heat to boil off the water
> General fire retarding effect from the solids within the paste

TTFN

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[ryanfire]

Thanks for the reply. The use of paste reduces the gross calorific value by about 15%.

 

[macmet]

Does all wallpaper have paste applied to it when it's stuck to the walls? I thought it came with paste that you add water to?

Why are you looking into the GCV anyway? I don't have any experience burning wallpaper, but I imagine it would be something you want to avoid.

 

[Compositepro]

I would say this indicates that the paste is mostly non-organic. Sodium metasilicate (aka waterglass) is a very common and inexpensive water based adhesive.

 

[IRstuff]

Modern wallpaper does come prepasted, usually, but not always.

Since some of these "papers" are actually vinyl, burning them would be a really bad idea.

TTFN

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[mcgyvr]

Why would you want to eat wallpaper anyways?..Paste..sure kids eat it all the time but I can think of many good foods that are low in "calories" and taste much better than wallpaper. ha ha

 

[vpl]

I think ryanfire's handle says why he's interested -- I bet he's trying to do a fire analysis of a structure where some or all the walls are wallpapered -- like my office building.

Patricia Lougheed

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[dvd]

1.) Why would anyone put wallpaper on the outside of a building?

2.) Calorific values for wallpaper seem about as pertinent as caloric values for a slice of pizza: you can find a published calorie value for a slice of pizza, but it is really going to depend on the particular slice. I would be curious about the source of the data on wallpaper. People have a tendency to publish values without knowing much about the source of the data.