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Prediction and Preliminary Standardization of Fire Debris Constituents with the Advanced Distillation Curve Method *
Author(s) -
Bruno Thomas J.,
Lovestead Tara M.,
Huber Marcia L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01628.x
Subject(s) - arson , distillation , fraction (chemistry) , standardization , debris , work (physics) , consistency (knowledge bases) , fire investigation , environmental science , evaporation , nist , computer science , process engineering , petroleum engineering , forensic engineering , engineering , chemistry , thermodynamics , meteorology , chromatography , mechanical engineering , physics , geography , archaeology , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , operating system
The recent National Academy of Sciences report on forensic sciences states that the study of fire patterns and debris in arson fires is in need of additional work and eventual standardization. We discuss a recently introduced method that can provide predicted evaporation patterns for ignitable liquids as a function of temperature. The method is a complex fluid analysis protocol, the advanced distillation curve approach, featuring a composition explicit data channel for each distillate fraction (for qualitative, quantitative, and trace analysis), low uncertainty temperature measurements that are thermodynamic state points that can be modeled with an equation of state, consistency with a century of historical data, and an assessment of the energy content of each distillate fraction. We discuss the application of the method to kerosenes and gasolines and outline how expansion of the scope of fluids to other ignitable liquids can benefit the criminalist in the analysis of fire debris for arson.