Large-scale Facade Fire Tests Conducted Based on ISO 13785-2 with Noncombustible Facade Specimens

Abstract

We consider the case that flame breaks and penetrates the glass window located on the exterior wall after flashover happens in the room/compartment where a fire breaks out. The exterior surface of the facade wall will be heated by convection and radiation produced from the flame and the fire plume ejected out from the broken window. ISO 13785-2 "Reaction-to-fire tests for facades-Part2: Large-scale test" prescribes a test method which can evaluate the effects of fire on the exterior material installed onto the outer wall when heated by the flame issuing from the broken window. Applying the large-scale facade apparatus of ISO 13785-2 with a non-combustible facade, temperature and incident heat flux were measured in the proximity of the exterior of the facade located above the window opening from where the flame originates, in order to measure the heat fluxes that outer wall spandrels will receive from the flame and the fire plume occurring from the opening of combustion chamber when there is no combustible materials located in the facade wall.

Numerical simulations of the ISO 13785-2 façade fire tests

“…The experiments have been summarized by Yoshioka et al [4]. They measured nearby gas temperatures and total heat fluxes to a non-combustible façade specimen at different heat release rates and in different ventilation configurations.…”

“…The dimensions of the combustion chamber were 4.0 × 4.0 × 1.7 meters. (Note that the chamber size, as well as some other features were reported incorrectly in [4].) The façade specimen consisted of a main wall with dimensions 3 × 5.7 m (width and height) and a 1.2 m wide side wall with the same height.…”

“…In this work we created a numerical model of the ISO 13785-2 test setup for testing the fire behaviour of building façade systems, and used the model to simulate the thermal environment on the façade. The model, created using Fire Dynamics Simulatorsoftware, was first validated using the experimental data by Yoshioka et al (2012). Next, the sensitivity of the façade heat fluxes on the geometrical and model parameters was studied, revealing for instance that the size of the combustion chamber window will influence the thermal exposure high above the window.…”

Experimental study on fire propagation over combustible exterior facades in Japan

“…In the first series, the combustion chamber has the inner dimension of 1,350 mm high × 1,350 mm wide × 1,650 mm deep and installation positions of thermocouples are indicated by marks • (T1 -T5) in Figure 4. In the second series, temperatures were measured 227.5 mm sideways from the central vertical joint as in Figure 5, in order to avoid direct 04001-p. 3 …”

“…4), and then on specimens of No.2-1 to No. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] (Fig. 5).…”