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Coals? How Hot!


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According to "Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers", 10th edition, coal gas burns at about 3,590 degrees F (1,977 degrees C) under 100% air conditions, with more or less air decreasing the temperature. I'd say that its a fair guess that airflow isn't ideal under whatever burning conditions your coal is under, so say its burning at only 60% what its potential is, the temperature is just over 2,100 degrees F (1,186 degrees C).
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QUOTE (indy @ Jun 26 2007, 06:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
According to "Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers", 10th edition, coal gas burns at about 3,590 degrees F (1,977 degrees C) under 100% air conditions, with more or less air decreasing the temperature. I'd say that its a fair guess that airflow isn't ideal under whatever burning conditions your coal is under, so say its burning at only 60% what its potential is, the temperature is just over 2,100 degrees F (1,186 degrees C).


That doesn't add up. Aluminium melts at about 660 dregrees C. My aluminium head for the pipe does not melt. Concluding; the coal cannot be 660 degrees C (1220 degress F).
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QUOTE (mgcsinc @ Jun 26 2007, 09:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
"the maximum temperatures found in the argileh head are approximately 450 C,"

http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?act=f...&pid=102867


Hmm, I'm not sure if I buy the temperature he is stating. That would mean that the coal is only burning at ~22% potential. I could believe 40% and above but 22% seems a bit low to me. Did he mention how the temperature was measured?
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QUOTE (KaSG @ Jun 26 2007, 09:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (indy @ Jun 26 2007, 06:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
According to "Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers", 10th edition, coal gas burns at about 3,590 degrees F (1,977 degrees C) under 100% air conditions, with more or less air decreasing the temperature. I'd say that its a fair guess that airflow isn't ideal under whatever burning conditions your coal is under, so say its burning at only 60% what its potential is, the temperature is just over 2,100 degrees F (1,186 degrees C).


That doesn't add up. Aluminium melts at about 660 dregrees C. My aluminium head for the pipe does not melt. Concluding; the coal cannot be 660 degrees C (1220 degress F).


I'm just relaying the info I've found online. Here's an interesting link showing the burning temperature of coal under different scenarios, the lowest temperature shown is 800 degrees C.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/f/k/fkr1..._combustion.htm
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i noticed that some of the aluminum foil had melted the other night while i was smoking... i was like WTF and moved the coal a little and it stopped melting.... it seemed more like it was burning away it was strange lol
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QUOTE (indy @ Jun 26 2007, 12:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (mgcsinc @ Jun 26 2007, 09:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
"the maximum temperatures found in the argileh head are approximately 450 C,"

http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?act=f...&pid=102867


Hmm, I'm not sure if I buy the temperature he is stating. That would mean that the coal is only burning at ~22% potential. I could believe 40% and above but 22% seems a bit low to me. Did he mention how the temperature was measured?


I think the issue is that Coal Gas != (does not equal) Coal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas

Also, as I've mentioned time and time again, that number comes from academic research. In academic research, you must report you methods in extreme detail. So yes, they did explain how they measured the temperature. As always, don't take my word for it - read the paper. There's a link in the thread that I linked to.
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Coal gas is similar to Water gas or British "Town Gas" a mixture, more or less of carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen. Water gas contains no methane, just carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It is a gas a room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Coal, is a solid, of course.

When you put a charcoal on your hookah's foil, it does not melt, but the boiling of the liquid (water, glycerine principally) moderates the temperature, too. The bottom of the coal quickly cools off with that in mind. Glycerine boils around 550F (290C) The temperature on the top of the coal has to be a little higher (in the case of smoking Tangiers) around 350-400C (650-750F). Which would still be lower than the melting point of aluminum.
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Hey KaSG and everyone els

As far as some articles read the temperature of a coal goes to about between 450 C and 500 C
Buttttttt I could be badly wrong thats all I found though....

And esentially

QUOTE (hookah hippie @ Jun 26 2007, 07:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
they are hot do not touch them it is hot


They are definetly hot enough to burn you.... biggrin.gif

Regards
H&S
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QUOTE (leadpipecinch21 @ Jun 27 2007, 08:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
what we need to do is have someone with those insta-read infrared thermometers grab the temperature...


Right.

Or, you could trust the scientists who took hundreds of measurements of coal temperature with direct-contact thermometers and then published their results in a peer-reviewed journal tongue.gif
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QUOTE (indy @ Jun 27 2007, 01:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Peer reviewed journal? I thought that was just a report somebody wrote for class?


Maybe we're not talking about the same thing. I'm talking about my post that I linked to above, which itself linked to an article from a peer-reviewed journal.
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It doesn't make it right, just more authoritative.

Glycerine boils at 290C, which is about 550F. My coals seem hotter on the top than the bottom (The bottom would be around the boiling point of glycerine). So the 450-500C number seems right, too.
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