- Author
-
Lee, B. T.
- Title
- Quarter-Scale Modeling of Room Fire Tests of Interior Finish.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Department of the Navy, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NBSIR 81-2453,
March 1982,
71 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
fire growth
|
flashover
|
heat release rate
|
room fires
|
scale models
- Abstract
- A technique for modeling fire build-up in rooms with combustible interior finish was refined to achieve closer simulation of full-scale fire development. Fire experiments were performed in one-quarter scale model rooms and full-scale rooms having a doorway opening. The interior finish test materials were nitrile foam rubber, fibrous glass, and plywood; a gas burner was emloyed as the fire source in a rear corner of the room. It was necessary to lower the doorway opening in the model by as much as 14 percent to obtain flashover with the same equivalent heating rate that produced flashover in the full-scale test. At the same time, the width of the doorway in the model was in the model was increased appropriately to maintain the same volumetric air flow rate. The effects of burner location and heating rate on flashover in a well-insulated room were and studied to help select a suitable ignition source size and placement for testing of interior finish materials. The minimum heating rate needed to cause flashover in a 3 x 3 x 2.3 m high room lined with fibrous glass and having a 0.73 x 1.93 m high doorway opening would entail placement of the heat source in a back corner with the source having a heat release rate of 300 kW. A corresponding rate for the quarter-scale room would be 19 kW.