A NEW MATERIAL FLAMMABILITY APPARATUS AND MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

摘要

A key aspect of fire safety performance is to limit the potential for fire growth and spread through the use of appropriately specified material systems. Specification of material systems currently depends significantly on empirical evaluation of material flammability characteristics. As part of an on going apparatus improvement and development program, the Advanced Flammability Measurements (AFM) Apparatus was created. The AFM is of intermediate scale and is closely related to the bench scale Fire Propagation Apparatus (ASTM E 2058), and similar to the bench scale Cone Calorimeter (ASTM E 1354). It was developed to provide an apparatus with greater capability in terms of applied heat flux range, maximum sample size, and incorporation of additional measurement techniques needed to assess flame and material heat transfer directly. These characteristics of the AFM will improve measurement of key material fire characteristics needed for computer simulation of end use fire scenarios. Results from a recent study demonstrating the performance of the AFM compared to the Fire Propagation Apparatus and the Cone Calorimeter in terms of measurement of material fire characteristics be discussed. Additionally, information on improved techniques for the measurement of flame and material heat transfer will be presented.