The Cone Calorimeter Used for Predictions of the Full‐scale Burning Behaviour of Upholstered Furniture

Babrauskas, Vytenis; Baroudi, Djebar; Myllymäki, Jukka; Kokkala, Matti

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1018(199703)21:2<95::aid-fam601>3.3.co;2-1

Cited by 10 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Table 2 summarizes the test data collected, with the materials that made up the furniture items listed in the first column. For upholstered chairs, Babrauskas [59] compared predictive models of upholstered furniture fire growth to a range of available experimental data. Peak HRR for the upholstered furniture ranged roughly from 200 kW to 2500 kW.…”

Section: Fire Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a process to quantify the hazard of fire protection design alternatives

Reneke¹,

Bruns²,

Gilbert³

et al. 2019

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There are a variety of new, improved, and/or innovative fire protection technologies that have the potential to improve fire protection and life safety in residences including barrier fabrics for upholstered furniture, new nano-scaled flame retardants, and better fire detection technology. However, there is no accepted methodology available to determine the absolute or even relative performance of different technologies. The Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has undertaken an effort to develop a method to better quantify the relative improvements in fire safety provided by different technologies to evaluate the impact of changes in prescriptive or performance-based requirements. In order to better understand the overall process for the analysis, this report examines the process for quantitative calculation of fire hazard of fire protection design alternatives using as an example case study the potential benefits of alternate requirements for residential smoke alarms. The case study will help define the process, data, and tools necessary for a quantitative analysis of changes in fire protection designs. The long-term goal of the project is to develop a well-defined process and set of tools for such analyses. This report shows the result of the case study as well as a discussion of the procedure itself. Several conclusions are apparent. With the speed of current machines and zone fire models, it is practical to generate tens of thousands of cases to analyze. There is also a need for additional data, including but not limited to fire data, information about the distribution of floor plans and about type and arrangement of the contents. Finally, there needs to be guidance and modeling available to account for the impact of occupants' actions and their interactions with fires. Going forward, research should focus on a two-prong approach. First, tools are needed to make Monte Carlo analysis more efficient. Second, additional opportunities to apply Monte Carlo analysis to real research problems would develop a base of expertise to further the use of this analysis.

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Section: Fire Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a process to quantify the hazard of fire protection design alternatives

Reneke¹,

Bruns²,

Gilbert³

et al. 2019

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“…They have developed methods to predict HRR in furniture fires. 4,22,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] A simple model may be used to estimate HRR _ Q (in kW) during the growth phase of a fire. The equation for _ Q is expressed in terms of the combustion efficiency χ, the heat of combustion ΔH c (in kJ/kg), and the mass loss rate or the burning rate _ m (in kg/s) of material 33 as…”

Section: Review On Hrr Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[20][21][22][23][24] In Sweden, equations were developed to predict the HRR for domestic and public furniture from the database of the Combustion Behaviour of Upholstered Furniture (CBUF) project. 15,25 On the basis of the work of Höglander and Sundström 26 in Sweden, 2 methods have been derived from the CBUF database to predict the HRR for domestic and public furniture. This paper will justify the application of the CBUF model in full-scale burning tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling of heat release rate in upholstered furniture fire

et al. 2018

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Summary Many fatal residential fires started from burning upholstered furniture, and so upholstered furniture fire has been studied rather extensively in developed countries. As many upholstered furniture were made in China, the hidden fire risk should be studied more. In this paper, full‐scale experiments on the burning of upholstered furniture manufactured in China were conducted and analyzed. The oxygen consumption method was used to measure the heat release rate in a room calorimeter. An ignition source of a 20‐kW gasoline pool fire of 0.2‐m diameter was used to test square foam cushions and 4‐seater sofas. A model of heat release rate predicting upholstered furniture fire in a room was developed on the basis of earlier Swedish works. Results were then used to justify the application of the Combustion Behaviour of Upholstered Furniture model to predict the heat release rate of furniture manufactured in China. The numerical values of key parameters in the model were determined. It is proposed to build up a database that can be used to model heat release rates upon burning furniture. Detailed procedures are illustrated in this paper.

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“…This was the earliest such attempt, and was based on a data set comprising materials primarily from the 1970s. In a publication from 1997, Babrauskas et al 10 subsequently studied three different models using cone calorimetry results in order to predict full‐scale furniture burning based on heat release rate behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of the procedure to burn textile fabrics by cone calorimeter: Part I. Combustion behavior of polyester

et al. 2010

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SUMMARYThe aim of this study was the optimization of cone calorimeter to determine the burning behavior of textile fabrics. In particular, the combustion behavior of commercial polyester textile fabrics with varying densities was studied in terms of time to ignition (TTI), heat release rate (HRR), and relative peak (pkHRR) were monitored. Reproducibility and repeatability of the data have been verified by the influence of instrument variable including incident heat flux, the temperature of ceramic backing pads and retaining grid used during sample mounting as well as sample weight (as the number of fabric layers), the density of textiles, and the relative humidity. A low reproducibility has been obtained when a wire grid was not used to stabilize samples during the tests. The effects of these variables on TTI and pkHRR were observed.

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The Cone Calorimeter Used for Predictions of the Full‐scale Burning Behaviour of Upholstered Furniture

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Towards a process to quantify the hazard of fire protection design alternatives

Towards a process to quantify the hazard of fire protection design alternatives

Modelling of heat release rate in upholstered furniture fire

Optimization of the procedure to burn textile fabrics by cone calorimeter: Part I. Combustion behavior of polyester

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