Advances in assessment methods for fire safety

Abstract In this paper, the term ‘assessment method’ implies a broad class of standardized experiments which are used in the process of evaluating the fire safety of materials, products or systems. A subset of methods exists which has traditionally been referred to as ‘fire tests’. A brief history of full-scale and bench-scale fire tests is presented. A framework for evaluating the fire performance of building elements, assemblies, contents or materials is described and used to discuss the recent advances in fire tests. The role of fire scenarios is discussed in the context of assessment methods. The continuing theme throughout the paper is the impact of the oxygen depletion method of measuring the rate of heat release, one of the most important advances in the assessment of fire safety during the past 15 years. Corner tests of wall coverings including the effects of changing ‘stand off’ distance between ignition source and the wall of a corner test are discussed. Representative data from a series of different experiments are given to illustrate the use of corner tests. A concept of the critical ignition energy to cause propagation is introduced.

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