Fire Growth Models for Materials. Final Report. June 1992-December 1993.
Fire Growth Models for Materials. Final Report. June
1992-December 1993.
(1568 K)
Quintiere, J. G.; Rhodes, B. T.
NIST GCR 94-647; 49 p. June 1994.
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
Order number: PB94-195856
Keywords:
fire growth; burning rate; cone calorimeters; fire
models; heat flux; ignition; pigments; polymethyl
methacrylate; small scale fire tests
Abstract:
Ignition and burning rate data have been developed for
thick (25 mm.) black Polycast PMMA in a Cone Calorimeter
heating assembly. The objective was to establish a
testing protocol that would lead to the prediction of
ignition and burning rate from Cone data. This has been
done for a thermoplastic like PMMA. For black PMMA we
measured ignition temperatures of 250 to 350 C and
vaporization temperatures of approximately 325 to 380 C
over irradiance levels of 15 to 60 kW/m2. The incident
flame heat flux, for irradiation levels of 0 to 75
kW/m2, was found to be approximately 37 kW/m2 for black
PMMA. Its constancy has been show due to the geometry
of the Cone flame. Also, this flame can be shown to be
nearly transparent for Cone irradiance (greater than 90
percent). The heat of gasification of the black PMMA
used was found to be approximately 2.8 kJ/g: higher than
other values reported for PMMA. This is believed to be
due to differences in molecular structure or
pigmentation effects and the types of PMMA tested. A
burning rate model was demonstrated to yield good
accuracy (greater than 80 percent) in comparison to
measured transient values.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899