Experimental study of corner wall fires with one or two combustible walls

Abstract

The corner fire characteristics with two inert walls are compared against those with one or two combustible corner walls through a set of standard Single Burning Item (SBI) tests. The study examines how the corner fire behavior is affected by flame spread over one or two walls. In the case of flame spread over one corner wall, the inert side is a Calcium Silicate (CS) panel. As for the combustible wall, two different materials have been tested, namely, plywood and Medium-Density Fiberboard (MDF) panels. The results indicate that the simultaneous burning of two panels in the corner geometry increases the Heat Release Rate (HRR) contribution of each panel by 45–50%. This is because the burning of one corner wall increases the temperatures on the adjacent wall significantly, occasionally by more than 200 °C, and increases the heat fluxes on both corner walls at the same time, sometimes by nearly 20%. The results of HRR, Smoke Production Rate (SPR), flame heights, pyrolysis front propagation, panel temperatures, and total heat fluxes at several characteristic locations are presented.