Method to characterize the fire behavior of materials assemblies

Abstract

Summary The fire behavior of various large samples polymers assemblies is an under‐researched topic. In fire risk assessment, the resultant heat release rate of burning different combustibles has to be known. To highlight interactions between components, 2 types of configurations were tested: juxtaposed and layered materials, using a specific radiant panel setup. For juxtaposed assemblies, results indicated that the more flammable component acted as an accelerator for the global combustion kinetics. For layered assemblies, 2 main phenomena were evidenced: the front material acted as a shield delaying the combustion of the backside material and the presence of a backside material induced a thermal thickening that slowed down the combustion of the front material. The experimental burning behaviors of the assembly were compared with a simulated one calculated from the superposition principle. This method was described by introducing a time offset and/or a slowdown factor in the model, confirmed with the use of different assemblies.

Flame behaviour, fire hazard and fire testing approach for lightweight composite claddings – a review

“…In common cases, the polymer assemblies are examined by an intermediate cone calorimeter in the horizontal position. However, some recent studies found more hazardous effects using vertical sample orientation (Pizzo et al , 2008; Leventon and Stoliarov, 2013; Vincent et al , 2018). So, the modification in fire load, sample orientation, test room conditions can generate more authentic test data from existing intermediate fire tests.…”

“…Though the data on flame behaviour of cladding materials are limited and most of the research data are based on bench-scale testing for single material (McKenna et al , 2019; McLaggan et al , 2020). However, different research work suggested that combined fire performance of multiple materials can give significantly different results compared to singular test material (Chow and Han, 2006; Vincent et al , 2018). Therefore, it is assumed that the combined impact study of multiple materials using bench-scale or small-scale testing will give more accurate and practical results for the cladding system in the future.…”