Assessment of fire behaviour of timber partition materials with a room calorimeter (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 2005
Fire behaviour of timber partition materials were assessed in a room calorimeter with size following ISO 9705. Fourteen full-scale burning tests on timber materials used in the local industry with and without paint, wallpaper, fiberglass and fire retardant were carried out. The heat release rate, surface temperature of materials, upper layer gas temperature, floor heat flux and time to flashover were recorded. Flame spreading over the materials was observed. Results are useful for comparing the flame spreading behaviour of different surfacing and insulating materials with and without fire retardants. It is observed that materials with rapid flame spreading rate might not necessarily give a shorter time to flashover. The performance of fire retardant depends on the substrate and the orientation of the materials.
Assessment of timber partition materials with fire retardants with a room calorimeter
International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 2004
Treating combustibles with suitable fire retardants can improve their fire behaviour, say limiting the rate of flame spread. There are requirements on treating materials such as polyurethane foam with fire retardants in the local legislations. To understand behaviours of burning those fire retarded materials under real fires, more indepth studies should be carried out with fire scenarios due to accidental or arson. Three different types of fire retardants commonly used were assessed by full-scale burning tests. The fire retardants were applied to the surface of chipboard partitions. Wallpaper was also tested over chipboard to investigate its effects on flame spread. Those products were tested under an accidental fire and a flashover fire in a room calorimeter. Ten full-scale burning tests were conducted and the results on the heat release rate, floor heat flux, upper layer gas temperature, surface temperature over materials and temperature profiles inside the room and at the doorway of the room will be reported in this paper.
Flammability parameters of wood tested on a cone calorimeter
Polymer Degradation and Stability, 2001
The effect of different loads of magnesium hydroxide as flame retardant on the flammability parameters of particleboard was studied. The effect of different flame retardant combinations was also compared. The flammability parameters were measured on a cone calorimeter at the uniform external irradiance of 50 kW m À2 for all modifications. The magnesium hydroxide improved the flammability parameters of particleboard and did not have negative effect on carbon monoxide production. From the different combinations of flame retardants the best retardant effects were measured for the combination of monoammonium phosphate and boric acid.
Assessing fire behaviour of common building materials with a cone calorimeter
International Journal on Architectural Science, 2004
Fire behaviour of selected samples of building materials including wood and plastic materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) commonly used in the market were assessed. Both thermal aspects and smoke toxicity were studied by testing the samples of wood, PVC and PMMA in a cone calorimeter. PVC was found to be very toxic as it has the smallest value of smoke potency. Not much smoke was given out in testing wood with a cone calorimeter. PMMA has a higher value of smoke potency, appeared to be not so toxic. A flashover heat flux at floor level of 20 kWm-2 was applied. It was found that under such heat flux, both wood and PMMA were ignited, but PVC was very difficult to ignite. Therefore, the thermal effects of burning PVC by an accidental fire would not be so bad. However, when the heat flux was increased to 50 kWm-2 , smoke would give problems upon ignition of the materials.
The Effect of Char Oxidation on the Flaming Combustion Characteristics of Wood Materials
Journal of Applied Fire Science, 1996
This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation into the flaming combustion characteristics of wood-based materials. The present work was primarily motivated by the fact that combustible solids, particularly cellulosic materials, often constitute the bulk of fuels in many building fires. In order to achieve this task a number of small-scale experiments on samples of different wood species were performed using a cone calorimeter. In all cases the effects of controlling factors, such as the irradiance level, moisture content and the orientation of the sample were carefully examined. It was found that the experimental data are quite sensitive to these factors. In particular, the effect of the moisture content on the heat of combustion and heat release rate was found to be quite significant. The results of the experiments were also used to develop some useful correlations.
Fire safety concern for timber partition in the Far East
International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 2005
Past records indicated that using timber products without adequate safety provisions might lead to big building fires in case of accidents. As surveyed in the Far East including Hong Kong, timber partition walls are commonly installed in offices, hotels, karaokes and even residential apartments. There is not much fire data of local partition timber materials. With the number of fires appears to be increasing all over the world, fire behaviour of those local timber products should be studied carefully. Results are useful for fire engineering approach (or performance-based fire codes) in designing passive building construction for fire safety such as the partitioning of offices and karaoke music boxes. The first stage is to study the ignition of those products. With the smooth reunification of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to China, stronger collaborations of universities between the two areas are encouraged. Some joint works with the SAR in this area was worked out in a national 973 project on fire dynamics. Reporting the preliminary study becomes the objective of this paper.
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019
The article analyzes the physical ways to provide the necessary limit of fire resistance of wooden structures, which have significant disadvantages, namely, leading to significant material costs and increase the volume of structures. Modern methods of fire protection of building structures are based on the use of blocking coatings, which are complex systems of organic and inorganic components. Studies of the combustibility of wood have shown that a raw specimen of timber construction is capable of engaging and spreading flames on the surface. Instead, the structure treated with the organo-mineral protective coating did not burn after combustion of the model hearth, respectively, and did not break down. The swelling of the protective coating was recorded, and the temperature on the reverse floor was less than 140ºC. As a result, it was ascertained that the effectiveness of the shredded image of the tree’s construction was 4.4 times higher for the protected organic and mineral coating...
Ignition of wood-based materials by thermal radiation
International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 2006
Ignition is the initial stage of burning the materials. Consequent flame spread over the materials, heat release rate, fire spread across the rooms, and other issues for building fires all depend on that. Ignition of cellulose materials is commonly classified as smoldering or glowing ignition (self-heating ignition) and flaming ignition including piloted and spontaneous ignition. Numerous studies on this topic were reported in the literature. A review on ignition of wood will be reported in this paper. Ignition temperature, critical mass flux of volatiles, time to ignition, critical heat flux and critical heat release were measured experimentally and applied as key ignition criteria for theoretical analysis. Quantitative study on modeling smoldering ignition of cellulosic materials is not yet well understood. As experimental data is inadequate, this part is only briefly discussed. Models of flaming ignition were well developed from those well validating experimental data. However, most of the flaming ignition models of wood were only on the solid phase. Gas phase phenomena during ignition should be further examined for developing flaming ignition models.
Wood, used as a building construction material, offers a range of advantages in terms of cost, time for construction, energy efficiency and sustainability. Modern timber construction is able to exhibit high anti-seismic and fire-safety performance, which is at least on a par with more “conventional” construction techniques (e.g. concrete, steel). Fire safety regulations have a major impact on the overall design of buildings with regard to layout, aesthetics, function and cost. In order to achieve the fire resistance requirements proposed in fire safety regulations, a fire protection cladding is commonly applied to load-bearing timber building elements. There are scarce literature reports of full-scale natural fire tests focused on the fire behavior of load-bearing timber building elements [1, 2]. In this context, the current work aims to investigate the behaviour of two contemporary timber construction systems exposed to realistic fire conditions. A full-scale natural fire test is performed, using a test compartment, measuring 2220mm x 2220mm x 2110mm; an open window, measuring 430mm x 960mm, provides adequate ventilation for the compartment (Figure 1). The Light Timber Frame (LTF) and the Glued Laminated Timber (GLT) construction systems are utilized in the test compartment. A symmetrical layout is utilized; LTF is used in two vertical walls (S, W) and the ceiling, whereas GLT is used in the remaining vertical walls (N, E) and the floor. The test compartment is built following the Eurocode 5 design guidelines. Timber studs and battens are used for the frame of the LTF walls, with plywood panels serving as the “sheathing” material. The GLT walls are formed using pre-fabricated 5-layer CLT panels. In both wall types, a layer of rock wool insulation is used, as well as a final fire protection cladding, comprising two 12.5 mm fire resistant gypsum plasterboard panels, according to relevant energy and fire regulations. The test compartment is externally clad with decorative horizontal timber battens.
Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, 2017
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influencing factors on the charring behaviour of timber, the char layer and the charring depth in non-standard fires. Design/methodology/approach This paper summarizes outcomes of tests, investigating the influences on the charring behavior of timber by varying the oxygen content and the gas velocity in the compartment. Results show that charring is depending on the fire compartment temperature, but results show further that at higher oxygen flow, char contraction was observed affecting the protective function of the char layer. Findings In particular, in the cooling phase, char contraction should be considered which may have a significant impact on performance-based design using non-standard temperature fire curves where the complete fire history including the cooling phase has to be taken into account. Originality/value Up to now, some research on non-standard fire exposed timber member has been performed, mainly based on sta...