A heat transfer and sub-grid chemical reaction kinetic model for solid phase combustion of a charring polymer is presented based on distributed reactivity modeling approach. The model is used to compute flammability parameters of a polymer sheet of a given thickness to simulate test results of a cone calorimeter experiment. Comparison of model simulations with cone calorimeter test data shows that it gives reasonable prediction of mass loss rate, heat release rate, and total heat released of poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) and ethyl vinyl acetate–aluminum tri-hydroxide (EVA-ATH). The solution of governing equations with the current form of distributed reactivity modeling model poses numerical challenges due to appearance of a double integral in the chemical reaction model. Hence, an analytical approximation has been derived to solve mass and energy conservation equations representing the model. Simulation results indicate that with the approximated form of the distributed reactivity modeling model, along with the input parameters retrieved from literature, the model shows comparatively good predictions for EVA-ATH for mass loss rate, heat release rate, and total heat released, but calculates under-predicted values for PVC.
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