Influence of grammage on heat release rate of polypropylene fabrics

The flammability of nine polypropylene fabrics or sheets has been tested using cone calorimeter at various heat fluxes (25, 35, 50, and 75 kW/m2) in order to assess the relevance of this fire test for thermally thin materials. The chosen procedure uses a grid and allows maintaining a constant exposed surface during the test, except for the lightest fabric. The structure of the knitted fabrics has a relatively small influence on the main flammability parameters. On the contrary, the area density of the sample (from 218 to 5729 g/m2) impacts strongly the time to ignition, the peak of heat release rate, and the increase in heat release rate after ignition (fire growth rate). At a fixed heat flux, thicker is the sample, higher are the time to ignition and the peak of heat release rate and lower is the fire growth rate. Moreover, thick samples exhibit the highest sensitivity of peak of heat release rate and the lowest sensitivity of fire growth rate to heat flux. This study emphasizes the fact that a moderate change in weight may have a significant influence on cone calorimeter results, without any significance on real flammability.

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