Doorway Calorimetry for Heat Release Rate Measurement in Building Fires

Abstract

Heat release rates obtained with conventional room calorimeters are not always readily applicable to the study of realistic fires, since the local environment in a conventional room calorimeter can be vastly different to that in a normal building enclosure. The doorway room calorimeter studied in this work was developed to overcome this difficulty and measure the heal release rate without disturbing the conditions in the burn room. Heat release rate is obtained from the use of the oxygen consumption method and the analysis of the measured velocity, temperature and oxygen concentration profiles across the burn room door. The technique was used in a series of building fire experiments involving various types of fuel loads under naturally ventilated combustion conditions. The measured heat release rates were compared with that based on fuel mass loss measurement. The results supported the feasibility of the technique and demonstrated its potential application in the studies of naturally ventilated fire growth and smoke spread in buildings.