Use of cone calorimetry to quantify the burning hazard of apparel fabrics

UK fire statistics reveal that there are 60-80 clothing-related burns fatalities each year and nightwear is the garment category which is more likely to cause deaths. Existing test methods for assessing the burning behaviour of apparel fabrics do not quantify the fabrics for their potential burn injury hazard. In the present work an oxygen consumption or cone calorimetric technique has been used to study the heat release parameters of apparel fabrics. Experimental fabrics selected for this study represent those typically used in manufacturing nightwear. Reproducibility and repeatability have been tested for both thermally thin and thick specimens in the form of single and multi-layered fabrics, respectively. The effect of varying incident heat flux enabled the derivation of critical heat flux (CHF), peak heat release (PHRR) under zero incident heat flux and fire growth index (FIGRA). Ranking of fabrics for their potential burning hazard is discussed in terms of the relative magnitudes of these parameters.