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Author
Ohlemiller, T. J. | Cleary, T. G.
Title
Upward Flame Spread on Composite Materials.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Journal
Fire Safety Journal, Vol. 32, 159-172, 1999
Report
Chapter 28; ACS Symposium Series 599,
Book or Conf
American Chemical Society. Fire and Polymers II: Materials and Tests for Hazard Prevention. National Meeting, 208th. ACS Symposium Series 599. August 21-26, 1994, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, Washington, DC, Nelson, G. L., Editors, 422-434 p., ['1999', '1995']
Keywords
fire retardants | flame retardants | composite materials | flame spread | experiments | heat flux | cone calorimeters
Identifiers
thermophysical processes; Cleary and Quintiere Model; Mitler's Model; Model of Brehob and Kulkarni; application to composites; comparisons of intermediate-scale data with model predictions
Abstract
Three existing models of upward flame spread were tested against intermediate-scale experiments on a vinyl-ester/glass composite. Characterization of rate of heat release per unit area, needed as input to the models, was obtained at external radiant fluxes below the minimum for ignition by adaptation of a method due to Kulkarni. There are several limitations on the accuracy of the material characterization when applied to composites. Each of the flame spread models has definite limitations as well. Nevertheless, all three models produced predictions of spread behavior in sufficiently quantitative agreement with the experiments that they should prove useful for engineering analyses of flame spread potential.