Application study of burning area-based summationmethod for fire curve estimation

Abstract

To estimate heat release rate (HRR) for a large structure with a full- scale fire test using the oxygen consumption method, a large calorimeter is used to inhale all combustion gas from combustibles. However, it is hard to inhale all com- bustion gas into the calorimeter completely. In this case, the summation method is effective because it estimates the HRR of the test subject by sum the HRR of small specimens. This study assumed the HRR fire curves of a simple single sheet material, a train seat assembly, and a room-scale train saloon mockup using a com- pensated burning area-based summation method, and then compared the results with the results of simple summation and fire tests to review the application of the method.