- Author
- Mansson, M. | Dahlberg, M. | Blomqvist, P. | Ryderman, A.
- Title
- Combustion of Chemical Substances: Fire Characteristics and Smoke Gas Components in Large-Scale Experiments.
- Coporate
- Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, Boras, Sweden
- Report
- SP REPORT 1994:28, 1994, 62 p.
- Keywords
- combustion | experiments | heat release rate | heat of combustion | smoke | large scale fire tests
- Identifiers
- fire characteristics; smoke characterisation; smoke gas components
- Abstract
- In the project entitled "Combustion of Chemical Substances and the Impact on the Environment of the Fire Products," combustions of chemicals from microscale to large-scale have been performed in order to study the relation between results obtained from bench-scale to full-scale tests. The role of SP was to conduct the large scale indoor combustion experiments. This report describes the combustion experiments performed using the SP Industry Calorimeter. In addition to measuring parameters such as heat release rate (HRR), mass loss rate, effective heat of combustion and smoke obscuration, considerable effort was putinto the characterisation of the smoke gases in order to obtain a basis for evaluations of the toxic potency of the smoke. The materials studied were Nylon 66, polypropene, polystyrene (with and without fire retardant, respectively), PVC and chlorobenzene. A total of 19 large-scale, well ventilated combustions were carried out. The mass of sample burned ranged from 20 kg to 125 kg in an experiment. A procedure was designed for cleaning the smoke gas duct between experiments and was found to be effective. Measurements were carried out for the amounts of O2, CO2, CO, NOx, THC (unburned hydrocarbons), HCN, HCl, NH3 and individual organic compounds in the smoke. Adsorbents were used for the sampling of organic components. From the yields obtained the toxic potency of the smoke was estimated using the N-gas model. The largest single contribution to the toxicity of the smoke in the SP experiments was that from HCl in the combustions of chlorobenzene.