Fuel Flammability Properties

Discussions focus on the ignition behaviors, combustion characteristics, and safety myths of various fuels including diesel, jet fuel, hydrogen, liquid oxygen, and hypergolic propellants, with anecdotes like matches in fuel cans or cigars in puddles.

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Keywords

JP TNT GP TEB YouTube SR EDIT theaviationgeekclub.com wikipedia.org fuel flame hydrogen burns oxygen liquid combustion burning pressure heat

Sample Comments

Chris2048 Nov 2, 2022 View on HN

No, it would ignite the liquid.

sevensor Mar 28, 2019 View on HN

My friend's explanation was that if the really flammable stuff gets out, it's already going to be on fire anyway. He described a technician tossing his cigar butt in a puddle of diesel fuel to make the point. The fuel didn't catch fire.

abakker Jan 16, 2024 View on HN

ever watched someone extinguish a cigarette in gasoline? it's explosive, but in a narrow band of conditions.

shellfishgene Jan 17, 2025 View on HN

If it was really an oxygen/fuel mix burning I don't think you can do much of anything to stop that.

zabzonk Nov 29, 2019 View on HN

You can throw a lighted match into a can of jet fuel and it will go out - try this with hydrogen.

That's liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen cooking off.

R0b0t1 Aug 9, 2021 View on HN

The burning plume escapes upward. It's probably safer than aviation fuel.

williamscales Aug 31, 2017 View on HN

It sounds like it's in a container, so it will likely explode when it burns. I wonder if they have some kind of pressure release system for those.

piannucci Aug 12, 2019 View on HN

Could the flame be acetylene gas?

Ygg2 Jul 5, 2017 View on HN

It'd take flammable vapor over explosive pack of batteries :)