- Author
- Durbetaki, P. | Tincher, W. C. | Lloyd, L. R. | Lowery, R. P. | Tingle, W. J. | Wolfe, V. L., Jr.
- Title
- Predication of Fire Hazard from Fabrics and Building Materials. 5th Research Report.
- Coporate
- Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta
- Sponsor
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NBS GCR 77-99, February 28, 1977, 267 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- NSF-GRANT-AEN7203359A04
- Keywords
- cellulosic materials | char | convective heat transfer | fabric flammability | fabrics | fire hazards | ignition time | pyrolysis | radiant heating | thermal radiation | thermoplastics
- Abstract
- The assessment of the fire hazard of a system (fabrics, furniture, building materials, etc.) requires, first, a quantitative measure which characterizes the fire hazard, and second, a rational relation between the hazard and the relevant descriptions of the system and its environment. Probabilistic failure analysis was proposed as a rational measure of a system's fire hazard and this is quantitatively expressed in terms of the probability with which use of a system leads to a prescribed loss. The fire loss probability is composed of all sub-probabilities which are associated with the events and processes leading to the occurrence of the fire loss. Measurements have been carried out to provide required data on thermophysical properties, constitutive description of processes, and ignition times. Thermal radiative properties have been measured both on original and charred samples of cellulosic and thermoplastic materials. Modeling analyses have been carried out for single and paris of thermally thin materials under radiative heating and single thermally thick materials under convective heating.