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Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris

Petroleum-based accelerants are commonly associated with arson-related fire. In most arson cases, accelerants such gasoline, kerosene and diesel used to increase the rate and intensity of fire. However, other petroleum based accelerants such as turpentine and thinner cannot be ignored because of the...

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Main Author: Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2010
Subjects:
Q Science (General)
RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/7/HamsawahiniKunashegaranMFSA2010.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/
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spelling my.utm.127442017-09-13T01:06:14Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/ Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini Q Science (General) RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine Petroleum-based accelerants are commonly associated with arson-related fire. In most arson cases, accelerants such gasoline, kerosene and diesel used to increase the rate and intensity of fire. However, other petroleum based accelerants such as turpentine and thinner cannot be ignored because of their easy availability. These accelerants composed of hundreds of compounds that can make identification of fire debris very difficult. Furthermore, the complex nature of petroleum based accelerants pose a problem for the arson investigator to determine the origin of the fire and the cause of the fire. Therefore, correct identification of accelerants is crucial to arson investigation. The application of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and chemometric techniques for petroleum-based accelerant identification is presented in this study. Extraction of accelerant was done by using dynamic adsorption-elution headspace technique and analyzed using GC-FID and GC-MS. The petroleum based accelerants used in this study were gasoline, diesel, kerosene, turpentine and thinner. Chemometric approaches were employed to simplify data obtained by allowing them for more accurate classification to their respective groups. Principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis and soft independent modeling class analog analysis (SIMCA) were explored for their effectiveness in establishing accelerant groupings. This was done on normalized data of total ion chromatogram and peak areas which were obtained from GC-MS. The extraction of fire debris using the dynamic adsorption/elution technique was successful in isolating the accelerants compounds from the samples. Beside that, PCA and cluster analysis were successfully classify the accelerants according to their respective groups compared to SIMCA analysis. 2010 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/7/HamsawahiniKunashegaranMFSA2010.pdf Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini (2010) Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris. Masters thesis, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Science.
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building UTM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.utm.my/
language English
topic Q Science (General)
RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
spellingShingle Q Science (General)
RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini
Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
description Petroleum-based accelerants are commonly associated with arson-related fire. In most arson cases, accelerants such gasoline, kerosene and diesel used to increase the rate and intensity of fire. However, other petroleum based accelerants such as turpentine and thinner cannot be ignored because of their easy availability. These accelerants composed of hundreds of compounds that can make identification of fire debris very difficult. Furthermore, the complex nature of petroleum based accelerants pose a problem for the arson investigator to determine the origin of the fire and the cause of the fire. Therefore, correct identification of accelerants is crucial to arson investigation. The application of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and chemometric techniques for petroleum-based accelerant identification is presented in this study. Extraction of accelerant was done by using dynamic adsorption-elution headspace technique and analyzed using GC-FID and GC-MS. The petroleum based accelerants used in this study were gasoline, diesel, kerosene, turpentine and thinner. Chemometric approaches were employed to simplify data obtained by allowing them for more accurate classification to their respective groups. Principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis and soft independent modeling class analog analysis (SIMCA) were explored for their effectiveness in establishing accelerant groupings. This was done on normalized data of total ion chromatogram and peak areas which were obtained from GC-MS. The extraction of fire debris using the dynamic adsorption/elution technique was successful in isolating the accelerants compounds from the samples. Beside that, PCA and cluster analysis were successfully classify the accelerants according to their respective groups compared to SIMCA analysis.
format Thesis
author Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini
author_facet Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini
author_sort Kunashegaran, Hamsawahini
title Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
title_short Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
title_full Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
title_fullStr Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
title_full_unstemmed Chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
title_sort chemometric approach for the discrimination of petroleum based accelerants from fire debris
publishDate 2010
url http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/7/HamsawahiniKunashegaranMFSA2010.pdf
http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/12744/
_version_ 1643646030038695936
score 13.211869

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