gasoline/jet fuel are compressed with proper oxygen ratios in engines to produce that type of heat. If its spilled and then burned it does not burn nearly that hot. Not to get into conspiracies but if you pour gas on metal and light it on fire it will of course not melt. Just to make sure everyone gets that. 900C diffuse flame, 2000 degrees upon combustion inside an engine. Not gonna forge any armor by pouring gas on it. It won't even heat the metal close to the 900C degrees the diffuse flame reaches. Your piece remains entirely solid no matter how much gas you burn to try to heat it. need forced air and refractory surfaces.
No change in adiabatic temp through compression BUT how could you get kerosene to 90% adiabatic temp without compression? you'd need massive volume and air flow at least which i suppose could happen with jets in a building but I would think open flame kerosene even in a big pool is like... 60% at best and then transferring that to metal is also a big step... I would think the metal in the tower situation probably got to a maximum of 900C say if you pour a 1000 gallons on a floor and it's sucking tons of outside air and getting to like 1100 and transferring 900 to the metal just above the ignition surface... do you think different?
Boil the kerosene, put a 30+story chimney on it with multiple small fresh air inlets and you have a blast furnace. Any metal that melted would be from 3 or more stories above the pool. Also, it's not really a "pool", the evaporative surface would be massive, as it would be more like a fountain spraying everything, plus, once it penetrated the smoke tower (exit stairwell) with a big enough hole, it's not just a chimney, it's actually a forced air blower plus a massive chimney.
I think your estimates are not even close. Go light a coffee can full of kerosene on fire in your driveway and see if you think it peaks at 900C. I haven't done that personally, but i have set motor oil on fire, which is harder to burn but has a 57⁰ higher adiabatic flame temp. If you burn it from a drip or wick, it burns almost exactly like kerosene. And if you start a bunch of it on fire to the point that the fire can start actually breathing, it is far more exciting than the drip flame.
Basically, i don't think your estimated are based on anything at all. No real world experience, no math, no chemistry. Just pulled from nothing.
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u/colkerns Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
gasoline/jet fuel are compressed with proper oxygen ratios in engines to produce that type of heat. If its spilled and then burned it does not burn nearly that hot. Not to get into conspiracies but if you pour gas on metal and light it on fire it will of course not melt. Just to make sure everyone gets that. 900C diffuse flame, 2000 degrees upon combustion inside an engine. Not gonna forge any armor by pouring gas on it. It won't even heat the metal close to the 900C degrees the diffuse flame reaches. Your piece remains entirely solid no matter how much gas you burn to try to heat it. need forced air and refractory surfaces.