Comparison between European chimney test results and actual installations

Abstract

European standards regulate the certification procedure for determining chimney class temperature\ud and the distance at which to install chimneys from combustible materials. These standards\ud prescribe the heat stress test and the thermal shock test. The high number of roof fires due to\ud the presence of a chimney that have recently occurred in European countries seems to be due to\ud a weak certification procedure. In this article, experimental tests and numerical simulations have\ud been performed to highlight the major differences between real and test conditions to identify\ud critical aspects of the current certification procedure. The influence of the position of the chimney\ud in the test structure, the thermocouples’ positioning and the thermal shock test initial condition\ud have been investigated. It has been shown that flammable materials’ temperatures measured\ud in the certification procedure can be lower than those in real installations, and this is mainly\ud due to the fact that exhaust gas temperature in the certification procedure of chimneys can be\ud even 350°C lower than in real installations. Then, real installations represent a more severe\ud condition

Data on temperature-time curves measured at chimney-roof penetration

“…Data presented in this paper support for previous works [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] on heat transfer at chimney-roof penetration. The data ( Fig.…”

“…In the experimental campaign extensively described in [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , a chimney of 200 mm in diameter was installed in a corner test structure ( C ) and in an axi-simmetric test structure ( A ) respectively. The test structures described in [1] , [4] are both made of an interchangeable roof.…”

“…The three roofs ( R1, R2, R3 ) installed in the experimental tests are described in [1] . As illustrated in [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , the clearance between chimney and roof was left open ( op ), sealed at the top and at the bottom with metal sheets ( ms ), sealed at the top and at the bottom with insulating panels ( ad ), and filled of insulating materials ( fi ) respectively.…”

Chimneys’ influence on fire risk of solid wood structures in residential buildings in rural Balkan settlements

“…For the possible operational conditions of a metal chimney, Neri and Pilotelli [11] conducted extensive measuring tests at the chimney-roof penetration, considering real operating conditions [12] and the conditions considered in the chimney certification procedure [13]. The main differences between these two conditions were compared in [14]. In [15] a 2D and a 3D numerical models for the estimation of the steady temperature at the chimney-roof penetration were defined.…”

Experimental Study on the Smouldering Combustion of Mineral Wool Insulation in Chimney Penetrations

“…These include, for example, the fact that the actual on-site flue gas temperatures are higher than assumed in chimney design [4,5], faulty installations, use contrary to operating instructions [6] and the smouldering combustion of mineral wool insulation [6][7][8]. Previous research by Neri et al [9][10][11] and Leppa¨nen et al [4,5,12] have also shown that the standard test set-up and conditions are often different from the actual site installations and may not always lead to a safe solution. All the above issues can increase the temperatures in the roof construction.…”