- Author
-
Briggs, P. J.
|
Harris, S. R.
|
Ollerenshaw, M.
|
VanHees, P
|
VanWesmael, E.
- Title
- Full-Scale Fire Testing of Carpets in Room/Corridor Scenarios and Comparisons With Small-Scale Test Procedures.
- Coporate
- ICI Corporate Fire Lab.
Consultant, UK
Don and Low Ltd., UK
State University of Ghent, Belgium
- Sponsor
- European Assocition for Textile Polyolefins
- Keywords
-
carpets
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large scale fire tests
|
rooms
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corridors
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small scale fire tests
- Abstract
- There is increasing interest in the use of small-scale test procedures to predict full-scale performance. Concern has been expressed by the carpet industry about the use of the radiant panel test for simulating a scenario of fire spread from a fully developed room-fire along an adjacent corridor. A range of carpets (fire-retarded and non fire-retarded) has been evaluated in an ISO 9705 room and 14 m long corridor scenario under developing and fully developed fire conditions. Measurements were made of ignitability, heat release, flame spread, smoke obscuration and toxic gases. No real differences in flame spread behavior of the carpets was found in the full-scale, fully developed fire scenario while in the radiant panel test, a wide range of results was obtained. Good correlation was observed betwen the smoke obscuration measurements from the radiant panel and room/corridor tests. Another series of full-scale tests were performed under developing fire conditions. Under these conditions, more discrimination in the results was obtained. This program indicates that the radiant panel procedure may require modification for its application as a classification tool and in fire hazard assessment.