Upholstered Furniture Heat Release Rates Measured With a Furniture Calorimeter.
Upholstered Furniture Heat Release Rates Measured With a
Furniture Calorimeter.
(3364 K)
Babrauskas, V.; Lawson, J. R.; Walton, W. D.; Twilley,
W. H.
NBSIR 82-2604; 73 p. December 1982.
Order number: PB83-165050
Keywords:
burning rate; fire tests; flammability tests; furniture;
plastics; heat release rate; textiles; upholstered
furniture; oxygen consumption
Abstract:
Accurate burning rate information on upholstered
furniture is important for two purposes--to predict the
room fire development history for a fire involving the
furniture, and to relatively, but adequately, rank
commercial products for a given application.
Small-scale test result data not referenced to
full-scale fires lack validity, while full-scale room
fires are costly and lack generality. To enable
simplified but realistic full-scale testing to be done,
a new apparatus, termed a furniture calorimeter was
developed. Rates of heat release are measured by using
the oxygen consumption principle. Test were conducted
in the furniture calorimeter on thirteen different
specimes of upholstered furniture, representing typical,
but carefully controlled, construction. The results
showed significant heat release differences between
thermoplastic and cellulosic fabrics, between frame
types and between padding materials. For polyurthane
form padding, however, performance was unrelated to
results of Bunsen burner type tests on the foam. Thee
data developed (1) can be used directly in the calcul
tion of room fire growth; (2) will form some of the
reference data for development of apropriate bench-scale
test procedures; and (3) can be used in some cases to
estimate burning rates of similar but not identical
furniture.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899