Office Work Station Heat Release Rate Study: Full Scale vs. Bench Scale.
Office Work Station Heat Release Rate Study: Full Scale
vs. Bench Scale.
(570 K)
Madrzykowski, D.
Interscience Communications Ltd.; National Institute of
Standards and Technology; Building Research
Establishment; and Society of Fire Protection Engineers;
Swedish National Testing and Research Institute.
Interflam '96. International Interflam Conference, 7th
Proceedings. March 26-28, 1996, Cambridge, England,
Interscience Communications Ltd., London, England,
Franks, C. A.; Grayson, S., Editor(s)(s), 47-55 pp,
1996.
Keywords:
fire safety; fire behavior; furniture; heat release
rate; cone calorimeters; experiments; large scale fire
tests; heat flux
Abstract:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has conducted a study with office work stations
to examine their heat release rates and to determine if
the peak heat release rate for a work station can be
predicted accurately from cone calorimeter results.
Fifteen full scale fire experiments were conducted.
Three types of work station panel construction and three
work station configurations were examined. Preliminary
results for the most common panel construction, fabric
over fiberglass batting with a 6 mm thick hardboard
core, are presented here. A method utilizing the peak
heat release rate from the cone calorimeter experiments
has been used successfully to predict peak heat release
rates for the most common construction work station.
This study is part of the Office Building Fire Research
Program being conducted at NIST's Building and Fire
Research Laboratory under the sponsorship of the U.S.
General Services Administration.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899