ANALYSIS OF IGNITABILITY AND COMBUSTION RATE OF SELECTED INTERIOR FURNISHING MATERIALS

Abstract

The first part of the article presents the issue of apartment fires and describes materials used inthe final stage of interior finishing. The second part discusses the research method and procedureas well as the stand where, using two surface and edge methods in accordance with the PN-ENISO 11925-2:2020 standard, the ignitability and burning rate of selected eight finishing materials,such as: laminated chipboard, varnished MDF, PVC wall panel, pine wooden board, ash woodenpanel, carpet, laminated panel and vinyl panel, were determined. The test results are summarizedin a table with the following values or answers to questions (Yes or No) for both methods used:whether ignition after 15 s, or ignition after 30 s, whether combustion was self-sustained, whetherthere were drops or waste, whether they caused ignition of the tissue paper, flame height after20 s and 2 min. The last column contains the general characteristics of smoke released duringcombustion. Moreover, a separate table lists the average lengths of the burned sample and theirlinear burning velocities in the surface and edge methods for selected interior finishing materials.The study comprises an analysis of the obtained results, based on which several conclusions wereformulated important from the viewpoint of fire safety of apartments. For example, it turned outthat the highest combustion speed was observed in carpet samples and an ash wooden panelprotected with clear varnish, while the lowest flame spread speed was recorded in the case ofa vinyl panel and a varnished MDF board.