Flame Spread Behavior over Kenaf Fabric, Polyester Fabric, and Kenaf/Polyester Combined Fabric

Abstract

Flame spread behavior is one of the important topics related to fire safety engineering. It is essential to examine factors, which influence the flame spread behavior over fabrics. It is known that natural fibers exhibit a different flame spread behavior than the one of synthetic fibers. This difference may influence the flame spread behavior over combined fabrics. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of materials on the flame spread behavior over kenaf/polyester fabrics. Before analyzing this effect, it is important also to know the flame spread behavior over 100% kenaf fabric and 100% polyester fabric. Thus, several experiments have been conducted for different materials of fabric made up of 100% kenaf, 100% polyester, and combined fabric of kenaf/polyester. For the combined fabric, experiments have been done for different weft thread angle of θ = 0° and θ = 90°. A burner is used for igniting the fabric at a point on its top edge. The data collected is recorded via videos and captured images for measuring the flame spread rate and detail observation of characteristics during the burning process. From the results obtained, it is seen that the material and thread angle influence on the flame spread behavior over fabrics. The flame spread rate on kenaf is lower than the flame spread rate on combined fabrics of kenaf/polyester while the flame spread rate on polyester is undetermined. The flame spread velocity also changes when the weft thread angle change from θ = 0° to θ = 90°.