- Author
- Sheppard, D. T.
- Title
- Fire Tests on Wood Pallets. Test Report.
- Coporate
- Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., Northbrook, IL
- Sponsor
- HSB Industrial Risk Insurers, Hartford, CT Chep, USA
- Report
- Test Report; NC1838-97ND312904, May 1998, 35 p.
- Keywords
- pallets | wood | pallet storage | fire tests | test methods | sprinklers | temperature | heat flux | heat release rate
- Abstract
- This report describes two series of tests conducted on wood pallets. The first series evaluated the effectiveness of sprinkler protection on stacks of idle pallets. The second series evaluated the commodity classification of two types of wood pallets with Class II commodity. Two types of pallets were tested in this test series. The first type was identified as a 2-way hardwood oak pallets. The second type was identified as 4-way southern yellow pine pallets. The idle pallet series consisted of six fire tests conducted with stacks of wood pallets. The purpose of the tests was to evaluate the effectiveness of sprinklers to control idle pallet fires in accordance with NFPA 231 1995 edition Section 4 Table 4-4.1.2. The idle pallet tests consisted of placing an array of wood pallet stacks below a 30 ft. ceiling equipped with a sprinkler system. The pallets were ignited in the center of the array and the effectiveness of the sprinkler system was observed. Measurements during the tests included: (i) number of operated sprinklers, (ii) steel beam temperatures above the fire, and (iii) radiant heat fluxes. The flame spread through the pallet array was also recorded. Two storage arrangements were used in this investigation as shown in Figure 1. One test was conducted with a 2.2 array. Five tests were conducted with a 2.3 array. The 2.2 array was used only once because the array was not large enough to evaluate flame spread.