Reduced-Scale Test to Assess the Effect of Fire Barriers on the Flaming Combustion of Cored Composites

This study proposes a bench-scale fire test methodology based on the cone-calorimeter to characterize mass and heat transfer phenomena in multi-component products containing a flammable core and superficial layers that may act as fire barriers; hereafter referred to as the "Cube Test". The Cube Test assesses the propensity of a material or an ensemble of materials to produce a pool fire by measuring the time required to generate liquid products and induce mass transfer of liquid products from the bottom of the specimen. In this study, the Cube Test is applied to material assemblies used in residential upholstered furniture (RUF).

A cube shaped specimen of flexible polyurethane foam with nominal dimensions of (108 × 108 × 108) mm³ was used as the specimen core in all experiments. Barrier fabrics B1 to B6 were commercial fire barriers that did not contain halogenated/organo-phosphorous fire retardants. Fabric C0 was a polypropylene cover fabric. The selected fire barriers were intended to cover a variety of commercially available products (non-woven/woven, thermally thin/thick, high/low air permeability) and a broad range of materials including cellulosic fibers, E-glass fibers, para-amid fibers, polysilicic acid fibers, oxidized polyacrylonitrile fibers, and combinations thereof. 

Data

Spreadsheets containing the data from the experiments summarized in the test matrix to the right can be downloaded in the ZIP file provided below. Information about the instrumentation layout, including sensor types and uncertainties, can be found in the reference cited below.

• ZIP file with test data (Microsoft Excel files)

Videos

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam without a barrier fabric (Test C0S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a non-woven barrier fabric made of polysilicic acid and cellulosic fibers (Test B1S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a woven barrier fabric made of glass fibers (areal density of about 109 g/m2) (Test B2S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a non-woven barrier fabric made of oxidized poly-acrylonitrile fibers (Test B3S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a woven barrier fabric made of glass fibers (areal density of about 50 g/m2) (Test B4S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a woven barrier fabric made of para-amid/glass yarns (Test B5S)

Polypropylene cover fabric and flexible polyurethane foam with a needle-punched barrier fabric made of polysilicic acid, cellulosic fibers and glass (Test B6S)

 

 

References

• Zammarano M, Shields JR, Leventon I,et al. Reduced-scale test to assess the effect of fire barriers on the flaming combustion of cored composites: An upholstery-material case study. Fire and Materials. 2020;1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2910