Fire Safety Performance Research Articles

A comparative study of test methods for assessment of fire safety performance of bus interior materials

SUMMARYThis work concerns the assessment of fire performance of interior materials in buses. The widely used test method ISO 3795/FMVSS 302 has received much criticism mainly based on the fact that the test is a small‐scale method not suited for bus fires induced by for example fire in the engine compartment or fire in a tyre. Furthermore, test specimens are oriented horizontally, whereas much fire spread in a real bus fire occurs on vertically oriented products. Seventeen products were investigated: 11 textiles, four solids and two insulations. Three test methods were compared: ISO 3795, ISO 6941 and ISO 5658‐2. Given the existing criteria for interior materials, it was found that ISO 6941 and ISO 5658‐2 place harder requirements on the materials.When the three methods were compared, it was found that ISO 3795/FMVSS 302 and ISO 6941 are insufficient for simulating bus fires typically occurring today. Such fires are often initiated by a fire in the engine compartment or in a tyre and can hardly be simulated by small‐scale methods as ISO 3795/FMVSS 302 or ISO 6941 even if the ISO 6941 method to some extent gives results similar to the established large‐scale ISO 5658‐2 method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Influence of substrate on fire performance of wall lining materials

This study assessed the fire risk of attaching a qualified surface wall lining to an unqualified combustible substrate. Experimental materials were gypsum, magnesium oxide, calcium silicate board and fire-retardant plywood, which were attached to a non-fire-retardant plywood panel. The CNS 6532 Surface Test and the ISO 5660 Cone Calorimeter Test were applied. The former simulates the heating environment in the early fire stage and the latter simulates a fully developed fire. Experimental data show that when a qualified surface material was attached to a non-qualified substrate, the temperature rise in the Surface Test decreased. The substrates consequently enhance fire safety performance in the early stage of fire growth mainly due to crake prevention and a decrease in the amount of heat stored in surface materials for subsequent ignition. Additionally, the heat release rate in the Cone Calorimeter Test increased or decreased when a qualified surface material was attached to a non-qualified substrate. Therefore, the existence of substrates enhances or reduces a material’s combustibility rank when a fire is fully developed. The key mechanism is the crake or flame penetration of surface wall lining, which can lead to substrate ignition. The change of combustibility rank depends on the time at which a crake develops or flames penetrate a substrate.

A STUDY ON METHOD OF EVALUATING FIRE SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS

The authors had previously proposed a method of evaluating fire safety in office buildings, based on a combination of statistical data and survey data obtained from questionnaires. The fire safety performance of the building and the characteristic value for "Fire damage area and Fire damage area rate" as the damaged quantities, was analyzed to develop an overall simplified index for the relationship. In this paper, the approach is applied to office buildings, factories and hospital to try and confirm the possibility of expanding the proposed method from the viewpoint of fire damage area rate as the damaged quantities to these building occupancies. Fire damage area rate was calculated by using fire preventing zone area or total floor area and fire damage area by "Fire report". With analyzing the properties of fire damage area rate, it was tried to examine the relation between the hard factor and the soft factor that was important factor and the influence of the regulations system to the fire damage area rate.

A STUDY ON METHOD OF EVALUATING FIRE SAFETY IN FACTORY AND HOSPITAL/NURSING HOME

The authors had previously proposed a method of evaluating fire safety in office buildings, based on a combination of statistical data and survey data obtained from questionnaires. The fire safety performance of the building and the characteristic value for “Fire damage area and Fire damage area rate” as the damaged quantities, was analyzed to develop an overall simplified index for the relationship. In this paper, the approach is applied to factories and hospital/nursing homes to try and confirm the possibility of expanding the proposed method to these building occupancies.

Human survivability in motor vehicle fires

AbstractAutomobile fires are consistently among the largest causes of fire death in the United States (about 500 annually) and the U.S. motor vehicle industry and others have spent a significant amount of money in recent years studying this problem. The authors of this review have analyzed the auto industry reports, the scientific literature, and statistical data, and conclude that measures should be taken to improve survivability in automobile fires. The U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 302 (FMVSS 302) was introduced almost 40 years ago to measure the flammability of interior materials, but improvements in the crashworthiness of automobiles and their fuel tanks and the increased use of combustible materials have changed the motor vehicle fire scenario significantly. In particular, the primary threat has changed from ignition of a small quantity of combustible interior materials by a lit cigarette, in 1960, to ignition of a large quantity of combustible interior and exterior materials by an impact‐induced fire, at present. The authors therefore suggest that FMVSS 302 is no longer relevant to automobile fire safety and recommend improved standards based on objective criteria for fire safety performance (fireworthiness) at the system/vehicle level as is routinely done for crashworthiness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A STUDY ON METHOD OF EVALUATING FIRE SAFETY IN OFFICE FACILITIES

Authors discussed on a method to estimate the fire damage area in existing office buildings by the beforehand questionnaire sheet survey. A questionnaire sheet was developed taking into consideration the score pointed not only the substantiality degree of the hardware factors, but also the substantiality degree of the software factors. A survey was conducted on experimentally 185 existing office buildings with the above-mentioned questionnaire sheet. As a conclusion, authors made clear what might calculate the fire safety index to be able to perform comparison of the fire safety performance between the building easily with the above-mentioned questionnaire sheet, and what might estimate the fire damage area before firebreak.

住宅の火災安全性能の表示方法に関する意識調査の分析(防火)

As for the performance related to a fire safety like fire resistance efficiency and evacuation safety, etc., it was confirmed that the priority level was not so high in the condition when purchasing a housing. Moreover, the result that a simple expression of the grade etc. was more useful for the method of expressing the fire safety performance than a probabilistic expression was obtained. The above-mentioned result suggests the necessity for converting the fire risk calculated by an advanced technique into a simple expression.

Japanese supplier doubles capacity for red phosphorus flame retardant

The black phosphorus (BP) can be compounded with other two-dimensional materials with flame retardant effect to achieve better synergistic effect. Herein, the multifunctional BP-RGO nanohybrids was fabricated by solvothermal strategy to improve the dispersion state of BP in epoxy resin (EP) and enhance its fire safety performance, where the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was attached on the surface of BP via PC and POC bonds. With the incorporation of 2.0 wt% BP-RGO into EP matrix, 54.4 % reduction in total heat release (THR) was achieved along with 55.2 % decrease in peak heat release rate (PHRR) compared with neat EP. As a similar trend, the toxic CO and aromatic compounds were significantly inhibited, and the maximum decrease (28.5 %) in total smoke production (TSP) was achieved, indicating the enhanced fire safety performance of EP nanocomposites. These positive results is attributed to the synergistic effect of physical nano-barrier, free radicals trapping and char formation between BP and RGO components. Meanwhile, the EP/BP-RGO2.0 nanocomposites exhibited satisfying air stability even after being immersed in water for a month. This work enriches the strategies for enhancing the air stability of BP, and confirms its potential for smoke toxicity and fire hazard suppression in polymer nanocomposites.

Fire Safety Performance of Japanese Traditional Wood/Soil Walls and Implications for the Restoration of Historic Buildings in Urban Districts

Grass-root research activities to clarify fire safety performance of Japanese traditional wooden construction are introduced. The activities aim to resolve conflict between the restoration of historic buildings and the reduction of risk and hazard of urban fires. Among various activities, scope and results of fire resistance tests on traditional soil wall assemblies supported by timber frame are reported in detail. The test results indicate an encouraging prospect for the rational fire safety assessment of historic buildings and further development of fire-safe traditional constructions for the restoration of historic buildings and historic urban districts.

A Systemic Approach to Measuring Fire Safety Performance

Traditionally, fire safety approaches have been reactive rather than proactive. They have tended to focus on technical aspects and look for the immediate causes of incidents or accidents after they have taken place. Negative outcomes have been seen as means to measure the organisation’s fire safety performance. More recently, fire safety approaches have focused on assessing the consequences of the fire risk inherent in the organisation’s operations more proactively. They may however not address human factors. There is a need to understand the systemic nature of fire safety, so that both technical and human factors can be addressed as a coherent whole. Moreover, this understanding should help to quantify the organisation’s fire safety performance. This paper presents a systemic approach that may be used to measure an organisation’s fire safety performance. This system is intended to facilitate an understanding of the systemic nature of fire safety and to help organisations to maintain fire risk within an acceptable range.

A simple model of polymer pyrolysis including transport of volatiles

Mathematical models and physical understanding of polymer pyrolysis are key tools in predicting the fire safety performance of polymeric materials. Without a suitably realistic view of the processes occurring in the solid phase during gasification, flame spread or ignition phenomena cannot be accurately or reliably predicted. Most models of polymer pyrolysis neglect to include two key factors: change of volume during pyrolysis and transport of volatile gases. In this paper, a simple model of volatile transport is incorporated into a model of pyrolysis, which includes change of volume. The qualitative effect of volatile transport is discussed and is found to be particularly important at low heat fluxes, moderate solid thermal conductivity and moderate decomposition temperature range. The shortcomings of the simple model are also discussed and suggestions for further work are included.

3D Computer modelling and human response

Current research within the Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering (CESARE) at Victoria University of Technology is focused on the issues of fire safety in multi-unit residential buildings. The level of fire safety performance in buildings is predicted using the CESARE-Risk System Model that comprises a number of submodels. One of these is the Human Response Model which is used to predict the response of occupants to different cues prior to evacuation from individual apartment. Reliable information on the probability of responses by occupants in the early period of an emergency, and the time taken to respond, are both essential as input to the Human Response Model. Existing data collection via detailed interviews with occupants who have experienved an actual fire is time consuming and is limited to the relatively few fires that occur in apartment buildings. To increase the reliability of data and to provide an alterantive means for collecting data on human behaviour in fire emergencies, a computer graphics model has been developed to simulate the response of occupants. A human responses database system has been developed, combining the simulation model with an interactive database management system. This paper presents the computer simulation model and describes the human response database system used for recording participants responses. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

3D Computer modelling and human response

Current research within the Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering (CESARE) at Victoria University of Technology is focused on the issues of fire safety in multi-unit residential buildings. The level of fire safety performance in buildings is predicted using the CESARE-Risk System Model that comprises a number of submodels. One of these is the Human Response Model which is used to predict the response of occupants to different cues prior to evacuation from individual apartment. Reliable information on the probability of responses by occupants in the early period of an emergency, and the time taken to respond, are both essential as input to the Human Response Model. Existing data collection via detailed interviews with occupants who have experienved an actual fire is time consuming and is limited to the relatively few fires that occur in apartment buildings. To increase the reliability of data and to provide an alterantive means for collecting data on human behaviour in fire emergencies, a computer graphics model has been developed to simulate the response of occupants. A human responses database system has been developed, combining the simulation model with an interactive database management system. This paper presents the computer simulation model and describes the human response database system used for recording participants responses. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

木造3階建て共同住宅外壁部材の準耐火性能に関する水平加力の影響

Safety in post-earthquake fire is a key performance for wooden large construction to be built in urban district. Loaded fire tests were carried out on typical external wood based walls rated as one-hour quasi-fire resistance after the application of shear deformations of 1/150rad and 1/100rad simulating a medium and severe earthquakes respectively. The resulting minor reduction of the fire resistance by the shear deformation suggests effectiveness of the post-earthquake fire safety performance of the tested wall assemblies.

Thermal Decomposition Products of Fiberglass Composites: A Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis

Decomposition products of fiberglass composites used in construc tion were identified using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. This bench-scale study concentrated on identification and quantification of toxic species. Identifying compounds evolved during thermal decomposition provides data to develop early fire detection systems as well as evaluate product fire safety performance. Material fire behavior depends on many factors. Ventila tion, radiant heat flux, and chemical composition are three factors that can be modeled. Physical observations of composites during thermal decomposition with simultaneous identification and quantification of evolved gases offer re searchers in both material development and fire safety an advancement in the state-of-the-art for material testing. Gas analysis by FT-IR spectroscopy iden tified toxic effluent species over a wide range of composite exposure tempera tures (100 to 1000 ° C), during pyrolysis and combustion. Fiberglass composites with melamine, epoxy, and silicone resins were profiled. Formaldehyde, meth anol, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, methane, and benzene were identified by the spectral analysis prior to physical evidence of decomposition. Toxic concen trations of formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, ammonia, and hydro gen cyanide were observed as thermal decomposition progressed.

Analysis of the NFPA Fire Safety Evaluation System for Business Occupancies

The NFPA Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) provides a multiattribute approach to evaluating fire safety performance. Published in NFPA 101A, which addresses business occupancy as one of the four types of building use, the FSES consists of a process whereby fire safety parameters are assigned values, and a resulting score is calculated. The analysis in this paper uses the parametric value spread to rank these fire safety parameters and assess the differences between criteria for new and existing buildings.

A system for describing the expected hazards of building fires

The Building Firesafety Model serves as an efficient tool for systematically evaluating complete building designs or specific elements of a fire code, such as those standards regarding the flame spread rating of wall coverings and the location of exits. This model enables the evaluation of fire safety implied by compliance with codes such as the HUD/MPS, NFPA 101, and the model building codes used throughout the United States. Furthermore, the model provides the flexibility to evaluate the use of new materials, while ensuring an acceptable level of fire safety without causing undue or unnecessary costs. Both the designer and code official may use this tool, once it has been perfected, as a guide to predict the building's fire safety performance before it is constructed. By using the model, these professionals may jointly assess the trade-off in a variety of architectural and engineering designs incorporating the use of innovative materials. Projects involving, for example, low-cost housing, new community development, structural rehabilitation, and energy conservation systems could also be analyzed. Thus far, the Building Firesafety Model has been used to evaluate: 1. (1) full-scale fire tests; 2. (2) alternative single-family dwelling designs; 3. (3) fire door in a multifamily dwelling; 4. (4) smoke control procedures in a care-type facility; 5. (5) stove hoods in mobile homes; 6. (6) escape potential in the Beverly Hills Supper Club; 7. (7) the effect of room size on fire safety. These applications have illustrated the importance of considering the complex interactions among factors related to the occupant capabilities; building and room dimensions; barriers; variations in fuel loading, ignitability, and flame spread rating; and environment characteristics such as wind conditions and humidity. The Building Firesafety Model also provides a framework for evaluating the trade-off between individual and community fire detection and suppression capabilities. Such innovation could, in the short run, increase construction costs; but, in the long run, decrease the cost of building ownership by reducing the losses due to fire. This will eventually lead to a reduction in insurance costs and, perhaps, taxes due to decreased reliance on community fire suppression services.