Fire Development in Residential Basement Rooms. Interim Report.
Fire Development in Residential Basement Rooms. Interim
Report.
(3127 K)
Fang, J. B.; Breese, J. N.
NBSIR 80-2120; 97 p. October 1980.
Sponsor:
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington,
DC
Available from:
National Technical Information Service
Order number: PB81-141509
Keywords:
building fires; fire tests; flow resistance; gas
temperature; heat release rate; interior finishes;
residential buildings; room fires; flow resistance;
oxygen consumption
Abstract:
A multi-phase study program has been established to
develop a rational test procedure for evaluating the
fire resistance of residential floor assemblies. The
first phase of this research program was aimed at
characterizing the severity of fires originating in
residential rooms and developing a specified set of fire
exposure conditions applicable for fire resistance
testing of floor constructions. A total of 16 burnout
tests were conducted to investigate the fire behavior in
typical residential recreation rooms of single family
houses. These fire tests were usually run for one hour
and were performed in two instrumented test rooms, 3.3 x
3.3 x 2.4 m and 3.3 x 4.9 x 2.4 m in width, length, and
height respectively, furnished with household furniture
and lined with interior finish materials typical of
actual occupancies. Measurements were made of the
temperature, heat flux, static pressure, smoke density,
gas velocity, species concentration, and oxygen
consumption. The effects of such parameters as the
ventilation, fire load density, initial item ignited,
room size, and thermal and flammable properties of the
wall and ceiling materials on the fire severity were
evaluated quantitatively. A fire exposure
temperature-time curve which is different from the ASTM
E119 curve, has been developed for testing the fire
resistance of such building structures.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899