- Author
- Babrauskas, V.
- Title
- Burning Rates.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NFPA SFPE 88
- Book or Conf
- SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. 1st Edition. Section 2. Chapter 1, National Fire Protection Assoc., Quincy, MA, 2/1-15 p., 1988
- Keywords
- burning rate | pool fires | cribs | wood | upholstered furniture | mattresses | pillows | television | curtains | cable trays
- Identifiers
- wardrobe fires; christmas trees; trash bags and containers; stored commodities
- Abstract
- Calculations of fire behavior in buildings are generally not possible if it is not known what combustibles are burning, and at what rate. In some cases, it is possible to make a useful simplification, e.g., for postflashover fires (flashover is here simply defined as a time in the course of a room fire when the average upper gas temperature reaches 600 dec C), one can either take (1) a worst-case approach, where an exact burning rate is not required, or (2) a schematized approach, where all of the burning rate information is expressed solely as a fuel loading. In most cases, however, a realistic calculation of the effects of a fire requires that some more specific information about the burning rate be known. This may require only an average burning rate, or the peak burning rate, or the complete curve may be required. Furthermore, if the design concerns are detector or sprinkler actuation times, then emphasis is placed on the initial fire growth characteristics. If, on the other hand, the concerns are for overall fire hazard, then typically the peak burning rate is of essence. In this chapter, the main focus will be on the peak burning rate, although some characterizations of total fire growth will be presented. an exact burning rate is not required.