Fire experiments inside a very large and open-plan compartment: x-TWO

Burning dynamics and in-depth flame spread of wood cribs in large compartment fires

“…A push for open floor plans in the built environment has motivated experimental fire research into fuel-controlled fires at very large-scale geometries recently [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Common to these experiments are porous wood crib fuel beds that are ignited at one end and allowed to freely propagate.…”

Review of fire experiments in mass timber compartments: Current understanding, limitations, and research gaps

“…Although HRR contribution by timber has been studied significantly in small‐scale experiments, the coupled interaction between the moveable fuel load and the timber is still not fully understood and requires further investigation, specifically regarding the influence of parameters such as fuel load, incident heat flux, and ventilation. However, Kotsovinos 6,11,12 found that compared to similar traditional compartment fire experiments with non‐combustible materials (Rackauskaite et al, 28,52 Heidari et al 27 ), the addition of a timber ceiling approximately doubled the total HRR over the duration of the fire, as shown in Figure 7.…”

“…Large‐scale compartment fire experiments have been carried out to understand travelling fire methodology, including the x‐One and x‐Two Obora experiment series, 27,28 both with floor areas of 380 m2. Most recently, a series of experiments is outlined by Kotsovinos et al, 11 with a similar compartment design to x‐One and x‐Two with the addition of a fully exposed mass timber ceiling.…”

“…These factors dictate whether the compartment follows a ventilation-controlled regime or a fuel-controlled regime, guiding whether the fire size is limited by either the availability of entrained air or available fuel. These two regimes are discussed in detail by Torero, Abecassis-Empis, and Cowlard, 26 [27][28][29] with similar compartment layouts used in the CodeRed mass timber compartment experiments. 6,11,12 Mass timber compartments, however, add a layer of complexity to compartment fires, by adding a complex fuel load to the ceiling, walls, and other structural elements.…”

“…For large compartments, a fuel load distributed across the compartment can result in fire travelling from one region of the compartment to another, resulting in non‐uniform temperature distributions unlike what is expected in a traditional compartment fire. Travelling fires have been studied in previous experiments in non‐combustible compartments, 27–29 with similar compartment layouts used in the CodeRed mass timber compartment experiments 6,11,12 …”