Flame Retardants.
Flame Retardants.
(353 K)
Gann, R. G.
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. 4th
Edition. Volume 10, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., NY,
930-936 pp, 1994.
Keywords:
flame retardants; combustion toxicity; fire research
Abstract:
Each year, Americans report over three million fires
leading to 29,000 injuries and 4,500 deaths. The direct
property losses exceed $8 billion and the total annual
cost to our society has been estimated at over $100
billion. Personal losses occur mostly in residences
where furniture, wall coverings, and clothes are
frequently the fuel. Large financial losses occur in
commercial structures such as office buildings and
warehouses. Fires also occur in airplanes, buses, and
trains. Fires occur when an ignition source, a match,
cigarette, or stove burner, meets a flammable product
such as a chair, wall, or scattered papers. The heat
from the source breaks down polymer strands in the
material, creating (generally endothermically) chemical
fragments that vaporize. At a sufficiently high
temperature, these fragments react with the oxygen in
the air to release more heat. Some of this heat
radiates or convects back to the product, breaking down
more polymeric strands, yielding more gas-phase fuel,
etc. Life- and property-threatening fires result when
the rate of heat feedback to the product exceeds the sum
of the heat dispersed from the combustion environments
and the marginal enthalpy required to produce a steady
stream of vapor-phase pyrolyzate. Understanding of
fires dates to the nineteenth century. The advent of
modern fire fighting techniques and equipment has meant
less destruction of cities or whole buildings.
Additionally, fire-resistant building design usually
contains fires to parts of structures. However, a high
fuel load in either a residence or a commercial building
can overwhelm even the best of building construction.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899