Room Fire Tests Research Articles

Smoke data from the Cone Calorimeter for comparison with the room fire test

AbstractSmoke production in the full–scale room fire test ISO 9705 (Commonly referred to as the Room Corner Test) and in the Cone Calorimeter ISO 5660 has been analysed for three sets of building products comprising a total of 28 products. The smoke production may be critical for the fire classification of surface products since some products produce large amounts of smoke in the room fire test even if they do not reach flashover within 20 min. Several smoke parameters in the Cone Calorimeter and the room fire test have been analysed. Good correlations have been obtained when the products are divided into two groups: products with more than 10 min to flashover in the room fire test and those with less than 10 min. These two time categories correspond to the two heat output levels in the room fire test: 100 kW for the first 10 min and then 300 kW up to 20 min. For products with more than 10 min to flashover the average rate of smoke production and the total smoke production seem to be useful parameters for predictions of smoke release in the room fire test. Both parameters have good correlations between data from the Cone Calorimeter and the room fire test. For products with less than 10 min to flashover no parameter seems to give useful predictions. For all products evaluated together, the correlations are not so good, but the same regression lines as for products with more than 10 min might be used as a first rough estimate. In this case the total smoke production in the Cone Calorimeter could be used to estimate the total smoke production in the room fire test for different building products, independent of their estimated time to flashover.It is suggested that the average rate of smoke production and the total smoke production from the Cone Calorimeter is reported in addition to the mass‐based specific extinction area. This will be helpful in predicting smoke release in the room fire test and will also make the data on smoke release analogous to those on heat release.

Modeling the Burner Source Used in the ASTM Room Fire Test

Modeling fire growth over wall linings in a compartment requires experimental data and a model of the fire source. Limited information is available for flames against a wall or in a corner. Steady-...

Fire performance of fire‐retardant wood fiberboard ceiling tile

AbstractWood fiberboard‐based, cellulose ceiling tiles have been used for many years. While various fire‐retardant technologies have been developed to reduce the surface flammability of these products to acceptable levels, questions of their suitability for use due to their intrinsic fuel value and the impact of attachment methods used on fire performance have been raised from time to time. This paper reviews the history of these products from a fire‐performance perspective and presents materials property data on surface flamespread, thermal conductivity and ignition phenomena. In addition, large‐scale room fire test results are presented including compartment tests conducted on a variety of assemblies (including those installed with mastic construction adhesives) according to ASTM E 603—Standard Guide for Room Fire Experiments.

Data for Room Fire Model Comparisons.

With the development of models to predict fire growth and spread in buildings, there has been a concomitant evolution in the measurement and analysis of experimental data in real-scale fires. This report presents the types of analyses that can be used to examine large-scale room fire test data to prepare the data for comparison with zone-based fire models. Five sets of experimental data which can be used to test the limits of a typical two-zone fire model are detailed. A standard set of nomenclature describing the geometry of the building and the quantities measured in each experiment is presented. Availability of ancillary data (such as smaller-scale test results) is included. These descriptions, along with the data (available in computer-readable form) should allow comparisons between the experiment and model predictions. The base of experimental data ranges in complexity from one room tests with individual furniture items to a series of tests conducted in a multiple story hotel equipped with a zoned smoke control system.

Wall and Corner Fire Tests on selected Wood Products

As part of a fire growth program to develop and validate a com partment fire model, several bench-scale and full-scale tests were conducted. This paper reports the full-scale wall and corner test results of step 2 of this study. A room fire test following the ASTM proposed standard specifications was used for these full-scale tests. In step 1, we investigated the combination of factors for evaluating wood products in wall and corner fire tests. They were the position of the ignition source, power output from the source, and combination of lining materials. We concluded from the sensitivity study (step 1) that for wall and corner fire tests, a burner output program consisting of 40 kW expo sure for 5 min followed by 160 kW exposure for 5 min was the most informative. In this paper, step 2 of the research program, results from wall and corner tests using six wood materials having different flame spread indices (according to ASTM E 84) are given. The two-step burner setting was confirmed to be better than a constant setting for evaluating wood materials. The relative perfor mance of these materials was in line with their ASTM E 84 flame spread prop erties. Smoke release rates obtained by white-light and laser systems showed excellent agreement. Only rate of heat and smoke release, selected tempera tures, and heat fluxes are reported. The complete reduced data set will be pub lished later.

Smoke production in the cone calorimeter and the room fire test

The smoke production rates for 13 different surface lining materials have been determined in the cone calorimeter at three irradiance levels: 25, 50 and 75 kW/m 2. Two light systems have been used simultaneously, a helium-neon laser and a white light source, showing equal results. Different smoke parameters obtained in the cone calorimeter have been compared with those obtained in a full-scale room fire test. There seems to be a reasonable agreement which must be further studied.

Analysis of large-scale fire test data

Large-scale room fire testing has evolved from simple fire performance measurements such as intensity and duration of ‘room fires’ to sophisticated measurements to understand the properties which cause the fire. This paper provides a overview of typical calculations, based upon published research results, that are used at the Center for Fire Research and elsewhere for the analysis of a large-scale room fire test. Analysis of large-scale fire test data requires the development of a series of algorithms that combine individual measurements to produce the desired physical quantity. A set of algorithms for the analysis of fire test data based upon published research results is described. Included are fire-specific calculations such as smoke and gas analysis, layer temperature and interface position, mass loss and flows, and rate of heat release. Examples of the application of the calculations are provided.

Toxic Gases and Smoke Evolution from Foam Plastic Building Materials Burning in Fire Environments

Foam plastic building materials were exposed to practical fire en vironments. Toxic gases evolution from various foam plastic boards burning under fire conditions involving plywood combustion was determined. A foam plastic board as a specimen lined on one of the inside walls of a "plywood box shape" was combusted in a semi-full-scale fire test room under different air sup ply rates. CO was the most important toxicant, followed by HCN and acrolein. The difference in maximum total toxicity according to the fire test was rather small, probably because the toxicity from plywood accounted for a large portion of the total toxicity. However, the maximum total toxicity indexes of combus tion gases involving rigid urethane and polyisocyanurate foams were higher than when phenolic and polystyrene foams were involved in fire tests, because a considerably great amount of HCN was produced from the above nitrogen- containing materials.

Large-scale fire reaction tests

The necessity has arisen in recent decades to ascertain the significance and reliability of small-scale laboratory tests in assessing the fire behaviour of building and furnishing materials. This has been satisfied by the creation of a Working Group ‘Room Fire Test’ within ISO/TC 92/SC1 (Fire Tests on Building Materials, Components and Structures—Reaction to Fire). This Working Group has produced Document ISO/TC 92/SC1/WG7 N40, ‘Room Fire Test in Full Scale for Surface Products’, where a Draft Proposal for an International Standard is presented. On the basis of this document many European laboratories, including Montedipe CSI, have built the appropriate apparatus and some have carried out preliminary tests. This paper describes such apparatus, its features and some preliminary test results, obtained in Sweden, where a correlation has been attempted between small-scale and full-scale laboratory tests. These data are quite interesting for plastics, because some criticism was made in the past on the basis that small-scale laboratory tests are unable to demonstrate the fire hazard of synthetic materials, since they have been developed for traditional materials.

Quantification of thermal responsiveness of automatic sprinklers including conduction effects

The response time index (RTI) represents the product of the thermal time constant for the heat-responsive element of an automatic sprinkler and the square root of the associated gas velocity. The RTI and sprinkler temperature rating are usually sufficient to predict sprinkler response, provided gas temperatures and velocities generated by the fire at the sprinkler site are known. However, recent evidence has indicated that a companion response parameter may be needed to quantify response for low gas temperatures and velocities and for low-RTI sprinklers in growing fire situations. The companion parameter accounts for heat loss by conduction to the sprinkler mount. The technical basis and methods of measurements of the response parameters are presented, along with preliminary results of room fire tests conducted to verify the refined response model.

Evaluation of quarter‐scale compartment fire modeling for constant and stepped heat inputs

AbstractQuarter‐scale tests of ten full‐scale room fire tests were conducted by using an existing scaling technique developed at the National Bureau of Standards. Test results confirmed earlier studies which showed that, under constant fire exposure conditions, quarter‐scale room testing ranked interior finish materials in the same order as did full‐scale tests based on their times to achieve room flashover. In general, quarter‐scale tests were less severe and took longer to reach peak room fire buildup because of a lower convective and radiative heat transfer in the quarter‐scale room. These tests also generated more CO per unit mass of material and experienced lower combustion efficiencies than did their corresponding full‐scale tests.

Effects of Ignition Source in Room Fire Tests

The influence of the ignition power and the size of the ignition source on the fire growth in full scale room fire tests is studied. The fire test room and its instrumentation are described. The results of a test series with three ignition powers and three burner sizes in a fire test room lined with chipboard are given. In the experiments the following variables were measured : gas temperature, total heat flux to the floor, smoke production, and rate heat release.

Observations of Large Scale Turbulence in Corner-Wall Experiments

Abstract It is recognized that small scale test methods are unable to predict the fire growth potential of interior finish materials. This has led to an interest in the use of full scale room fire tests. One of the reasons for the effectiveness of these full scale experiments is their ability to reproduce a turbulence similar to the one expected under actual fire conditions. This paper describes some of the flame morphologies observed in full scale fire experiments, and their origins are ascribed to certain turbulent conditions. The corner placement of the ignition source is shown to produce a more severe exposure to the walls than a side wall exposure. The spread of fire to the ceiling is shown to follow the corner between the two walls, and the subsequent flame spread at the ceiling is in the narrow region at the intersection between the walls and the ceiling, termed in this paper the "T" pattern flame morphology. In cases where the walls and/or the ceiling are combustible, it has been observed that the "T" pattern begins to burn first, and it is only afler this "T" burning is established that the remainder of the ceiling is ignited and begins to burn. A special flame morphology is shown which appears to be important to the flame spread under the ceiling of a compartment. A mechanism is presented lo explain the observed morphology in which a vortex structure originally formed on one wall is interrupted by fluctuations in the buoyant plume at the corner, is captured by the flow on the other wall, and is then swept along with the flow at that wall. The significance of this turbulence is discussed, and it is suggested that it be taken into account when developing compartment fire models.

Calculations of the Heat Release Rate by Oxygen Consumption for Various Applications

The calculation of heat release rate by oxygen consumption is based on the assumption that all materials release approximately the same amount of heat per unit mass of oxygen consumed. This technique is now being employed to determine the heat release rate of materials in various heat release rate cal orimeters. Other uses include the heat release rate of assemblies in the fire en durance furnaces and the total heat release rate in room fire tests. These dif ferent applications lead to different experimental procedures which require dif ferent formulas. The experimental choices or constraints include open or closed systems, paramagnetic or high temperature oxygen analyzers, CO2 analyzers or CO2 traps, and the use of a gas burner whose heat release rate must be deducted from the total. Various assumptions about CO levels in the exhaust duct and vitiation and humidity in the incoming air are made. General formulas for the heat release rate by oxygen consumption are developed in this paper from which the formulas for specific applications can easily be derived.

Fire Test Comparison of a Mini-Compartment Corner Test to a Full Scale Enclosed Room Fire Test

Fire Test Comparison of a Mini-Compartment Corner Test to a Full Scale Enclosed Room Fire Test

Upholstered Furniture Room Fires—Measurements, Comparison With Furniture Calorimeter Data, and Flashover Predictions

This paper describes a series of room fire tests using upholstered furniture items for comparison with their open burning rates, previously determined in a furniture calorimeter. For the four tests conducted good agreement was seen in all periods of the room fires, including post-flashover, noting that only fuel- controlled room fires were considered. Difficulties in making accurate mass and heat flow measurements in the room's window opening were found, and it is sug gested that with present day instrumentation only exhaust stack measurements are reliable. Finally, a number of simplified rules or theories for predicting room flashover based on room physical properties and open-burning heat release values were examined and compared. Broad agreement was generally found, with recommended ones selected on the basis of well-controlled asymptotic behavior.

Field test and evaluation of residential sprinkler systems: Part I

A series of full-scale fire tests involving sprinkler installations was conducted in 1979 and 1980 in a two-story residence in Los Angeles, CA, and in a mobile home in Charlotte, NC. Previous laboratory tests, including full-scale room fire tests, had indicated that a prototype “quick-response” sprinkler was effective in controlling residential home fires. More full-scale fire tests under less controlled and more operational conditions were considered necessary to confirm or deny these scientific and engineering judgments. The prime objective of the program was to test the performance of alternative sprinkler designs to “control” the development of fire in single-family dwellings and mobile homes.

The development of a full-scale room fire test

A large-scale room calorimeter has been developed for testing surface lining materials as well as furniture and other fittings. Heat release rates in the fire room have been measured in various ways. The technique based on oxygen consumption was deemed to be the most suitable for a standard test. A hood has therefore been built to collect all the fire gases leaving the room; thus, the rates of production of smoke and various chemical compounds can readily be measured and give a good basis for estimating the fire hazard of a specimen. As it is extremely difficult to scale fire tests there is an urgent need for evaluating laboratory scale tests. This accurately defined, full-size method could serve as an invaluable tool for this purpose. Tests of several wall lining materials and pieces of furniture are reported in the paper.

Repeatability of Large-scale Room Fire Tests

Statistical analysis was performed on the experimental results of four full-scale room fire tests from a series of floor-ceiling assembly fire resistance tests conducted in a basement recreation room.