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CO Q NBS TECHNICAL NOTE 1103

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE /National Bureau of Standards

Full-Scale Burning Behavior

of Upholstered Chairs
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards' was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1901. The Bureau's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology

and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts

research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade, and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau's technical work is per- formed by the National Measurement Laboratory, the National Engineering Laboratory, and

the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology.

THE NATIONAL MEASUREMENT LABORATORY provides the national system of

physical and chemical and materials measurement; coordinates the system with measurement

systems of other nations and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and" uniform

physical and chemical measurement throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry,

and commerce; conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement,

standards, and data on the properties of materials needed by industry, commerce, educational

institutions, and Government; provides advisory and research services to other Government

agencies; develops, produces, and distributes Standard Reference Materials; and provides

calibration services. The Laboratory consists of the following centers:

Absolute Physical Quantities2 — Radiation Research — Thermodynamics and

Molecular Science — Analytical Chemistry — Materials Science. THE NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY provides technology and technical ser- vices to the public and private sectors to address national needs and to solve national problems; conducts research in engineering and applied science in support of these efforts; builds and maintains competence in the necessary disciplines required to carry out this research and technical service; develops engineering data and measurement capabilities;

provides engineering measurement traceability services; develops test methods and proposes

engineering standards and code changes; develops and proposes new engineering practices;

and develops and improves mechanisms to transfer results of its research to the ultimate user. The Laboratory consists of the following centers:

Applied Mathematics — Electronics and Electrical Engineering2 — Mechanical

Engineering and Process Technology2 — Building Technology — Fire Research —

Consumer Product Technology — Field Methods.

THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts

research and provides scientific and technical services to aid Federal agencies in the selection,

acquisition, application, and use of computer technology to improve effectiveness and

economy in Government operations in accordance with Public Law 89-306 (40 U.S.C. 759), relevant Executive Orders, and other directives; carries out this mission by managing the Federal Information Processing Standards Program, developing Federal A DP standards

guidelines, and managing Federal participation in ADP voluntary standardization activities; provides scientific and technological advisory services and assistance to Federal agencies; and

provides the technical foundation for computer-related policies of the Federal Government.

The Institute consists of the following centers:

Programming Science and Technology — Computer Systems Engineering.

'Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, MD, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, DC 20234.

2 Some divisions within the center are located at Boulder, CO 80303.
Full-Scale Burning Behavior

of Upholstered Chairs

Vytenis Babrauskas

Center for Fire Research

National Engineering Laboratory

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, DC 20234

Sponsored in part byVeterans Administration Washington, DC 20420

Department of Defense

Washington, DC 20330

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Washington, DC 20207

,^T 0F c~

^EAU O*

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Juanita M. Kreps, Secretary

Luther H. Hodges, Jr., Under Secretary

Jordan J. Baruch, Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler, Director

Issued August 1979
National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 1103

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.). Tech. Note 1103, 86 pages (Aug. 1979) CODEN: NBTNAE

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1979

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

Stock No. 003-003-02110-5 - Price $3.50

(Add 25 percent additional for other than U.S. mailing)
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF FIGURES iv

Abstract 1

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK 2

3. SCOPE OF WORK 6

4. DESCRIPTION OF EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES AND INSTRUMENTATION .... 6 4.1 Test Room 6 4.2 Instrumentation 7

5. TEST PROGRAM 8 5.1 Test Procedure 8 5.2 Ignition Sources 8 5.3 Ventilation Conditions 8 5.4 Description of Test Chairs 8

6. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION 12

7. RESULTS 13

7.1 Ignition Source Effects 13

7.2 Ventilation Effects 14

7.3 Reproducibility 14

7.4 General Observations 14

7.5 Performance Ranking 15

7.6 Effect of Type of Construction 15

7.7 Effect of Upholstery Material 15

7.8 Effect of Interliners 16

7.9 Effect of Padding Material 16

8. IMPLICATIONS FOR STANDARIZED TESTING 16

9. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 17

10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 17

11. REFERENCES 18

APPENDIX — LOG OF OBSERVATIONS A-l

in
LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1. Summary of burn room characteristics 21

Table 2. List of instrumentation 22

Table 3. Schedule of tests 24

Table 4. Specimen weights and weight loss 25

Table 5. Heat flux peak values 26

Table 6. Times to exceed critical radiant heat flux 27

Table 7. Peak smoke extinction coefficients 28

Table 8. Times to exceed critical level of smoke extinction

coefficient 29

Table 9. Peak gas concentrations 30

Table 10. Calculated COHb values at different times 31

Table 11. Times to exceed critical gas concentrations 32

Table 12. Tenability groups 33

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1. Burn room plan view 34

Figure 2. Burn room elevation 35

Figure 3. View of chair C01 36

Figure 4. View of chair C02 37

Figure 5. View of chair C03 38

Figure 6. View of chair C04 39

Figure 7. View of chair C05 40

Figure 8. View of chair C06 41

Figure 9. View of chair C07 42

Figure 10. View of chair C08 . 43

Figure 11. View of chair C09 44

Figure 12. View of chair CIO 45

Figure 13. View of chair Cll 46

IV
LIST OF FIGURES (continued)

Page

Figure 14. View of chair C12 47

Figure 15. View of chair C13 48

Figure 16. View of chair C14 49

Figure 17. View of chair C15 50

Figure 18. View of chair C16 51

Figure 19. Results for chair C01, standard ignition 52

Figure 20. Results for chair C01, cigarette ignition 53

Figure 21. Results for chair C02, standard ventilation 54

Figure 22. Results for chair C02, window ventilation 55

Figure 23. Results for chair C02, part-open door 56

Figure 24. Results for chair C03, standard ignition 57

Figure 25. Results for chair C03, wastebasket ignition 58

Figure 26. Results for chair C04 59

Figure 27. Results for chair C05 60

Figure 28. Results for chair C06 61

Figure 29. Results for chair C07 62

Figure 30. Results for chair C08 63

Figure 31. Results for chair C09 64

Figure 32. Results for chair CIO 65

Figure 33. Results for chair Cll 66

Figure 34. Results for chair C12 67

Figure 35. Results for chair C13 68

Figure 36. Results for chair C14 69

Figure 37. Results for chair C15 70

Figure 38. Results for chair C16 71

v

FULL-SCALE BURNING BEHAVIOR OF UPHOLSTERED CHAIRS

Vytenis Babrauskas

A test program was conducted to determine the fire

behavior of a variety of upholstered chairs subjected to

a flaming ignition. Major variables were materials and

construction of chairs, room ventilation, and type of

ignition sources. A total of 16 types of traditional

and modern design chairs were tested in a full-scale,

otherwise unfurnished room. A folded up newspaper at

the seat area was used as the standard ignition source. Room tenability criteria were based on smoke, concentrations of gaseous combustion products, and heat flux.

One or more tenability criteria were exceeded for 14

chairs, in times ranging from 100 sec to 650 sec; two

chairs burned without exceeding any of the tenability

criteria. A review is included of previous upholstered

furniture experiments using flaming ignition sources

and of existing or proposed small-scale standard tests.

Key words: Chairs; compartment fires; f lammability

fire tests; furnishings; upholstered furniture.

1. INTRODUCTION

It has been estimated [1] that some 110,000 fires annually occur in

the United States where upholstered furniture is the first item to ignite.

The majority, some 70% of these, are attributed to cigarette ignition.

This undesirable loss picture has resulted in a proposed standard [2,3] for

cigarette ignition resistance of upholstered furniture. Such a standard,

if adopted and enforced, would apparently seem to mitigate the worst aspects

of the problem. An examination of the case histories of some fires [4,5],

however, points to an additional problem. The course of a typical cigarette

ignition fire is a slow one, beginning with smoldering of the upholstery

fabric cover or of the padding and only later, if at all, breaking out in

open flame. While property damage for smoldering fires is usually minor

and multiple fatalities are not usual, most furniture fire deaths (estimated

to be 1500 annually) occur in this manner. The case histories of particular

concern in this study, on the other hand, involved flaming ignition and

rapidly developing fires, with major property losses and potential multiple

fatalities. The prime hazard in these cases is rapid flame spread and high

rates of burning for the furniture in question.

These fast-developing fires are seen to often have one ingredient in

common--heavy use of plastics and especially flexible foam cushioning in

the furniture involved. This is the reason why fires of this kind have

come into prominence only in the last decade or so. Concern with minimizing

these tragic fires suggests that for upholstered furniture the flaming

combustion behavior has to be controlled, in addition to the resistance to

ignition. Before any program for control of the flaming combustion behavior

can be formulated, a systematic quantitative study of that behavior must be

undertaken. The present report documents an exploratory study in this

area. A separate study of flaming ignition behavior is necessary since

flaming ignition and cigarette ignition behavior are not correlated—good

performance in one case does not necessarily imply good performance for the

other.

Numbers in brackets refer to the literature references listed at the end

of this report.
2. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

furnitu^since furniture^orms"^.^^"^1"1 ?* "re Properties of

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fire protection angineerinq to rnat TM? An^P advances were being made in

post-flashover fires ImerSino w =i2

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of the spreadingrpre^Llho^er^Le^wL^e^omrng'ripe^le'c^nd9 £ use^r*

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notable of these was furniture

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fires

thewas rS.^in'tt.^l^l^g.'S.S^S.'S^J ""ore^^h" beina real -i 7^ ci^Q Iv, ue TM ioss °r small, pre-f lashover

connected with upholstere'd^furn^e f irTislound*?lu Sit" ' J"*18 cigarette ignitions, NBS started a research program in"197? ?i S TM ^

ignitL^began ^ewSIt'eLlfe^IoSe itlllTrA^^Tt

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to determine [13] undertook a set of furnished roSm burns' expected times to flashover for several types of furniture

tvLfn?^^? Wa

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fully furnished rooms were tested: living rooms with cotton construction upholstered furniture, living rooms with foam Stex nS'tio^ 1 Sfm dian time ^^^^^f^^^Z^^M^"-

STS'K.iSJS ^1TM^ with only a single upholstered"cLfr

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did not

The question of what are the minimum conditions for igniting the second item in a room is clearly an important one. In 1968 Theobald T141 a

eburnlna oLcf£*? a burning

of,—

^^rgets placed at different distances from piece of furniture. The work was sponsored by a British civil defense

The

activity and consequently an unusual ignition procedure was used ignition involved strips of combustible fiber board placed around tie' was

test piece and ignited with 600 g of alcohol. A total of 2 kg of excelsior spread around the edges of the room and ignited simultaneously with tne specimen. Test specimens included chairs, both upholstered and not a bookcase, and a wardrobe, all of conventional wooden construction. The

2 Flashover is defined as a change from localized burning to fully stirred burning in a room. Prior to flashover temperatures and heat fluxes are generally near-ambient except near localized zones of burning. After flashover essentially the entire room is filled with flames and the fire is out of occupant control.
non-upholstered wood chair was not consumed. Targets considered were

cotton cloth, wood blocks, and thin plywood sheets. Flame from the burning

upholstered chairs ignited cloth targets up to 0.15 m away, while the

burning wardrobe ignited both cloth and wood targets at 1.20 m; the bookcase

showed intermediate behavior.

In 1970, NBS sponsored a furniture flammability study at Southwest

Research Institute, conducted by Hafer and Yuill [15]. The series focused

mainly on mattresses but did include eight tests on upholstered chairs.

The cushioning materials were polyurethane and latex foams, covered by a variety of upholstery fabrics. Most of the chairs were ignited with

cigarettes, but two were lit with matches. Temperature, smoke obscuration

and CO, CO2, and 2 were monitored. The results of the cigarette ignition

tests showed generally similar rankings, but the match ignitions produced

much faster fire development.

Efforts in measuring flame spread over upholstered furniture were

started in 1972 by Lee and Wiltshire [16] . They measured horizontal flame

spread, with no external radiation, over fabrics alone and over fabrics

backed with cushioning. For the cushioning-backed samples the flame spread

velocities did not appreciably depend on the fabric type, but were two to

three times higher for polyurethane foam cushioning than for cotton padding.

In 1974, Southwest Research Institute conducted another series [17] of

full-scale tests of mattresses and upholstered furniture, this time sponsored

by the Society of the Plastics Industry. A series of 13 sofas and upholstered chairs were tested. The basic construction was similar for all.

Cushioning material studied included non-retardant treated cotton batting,

polyurethane, retardant-treated polyurethane and latex foams. Test specimens were ignited with a gas burner, which was shut off when the specimen ignited.

Weight loss, smoke obscuration, and gas concentrations were measured. The

results showed cotton batting specimens burning slowest and latex foam

specimens developing fastest fires, with polyurethane foam being slightly

slower than latex. Conventional fire retarded grades of polyurethane foam

did not perform better than untreated ones. However, a foam with 38% filler

showed improved behavior.

Hillenbrand and Wray [18] have reported on a set of four tests of

fully furnished bedrooms. The tests differed in the extent to which highly

fire resistive materials and components were incorporated into the furnishings. The baseline, conventional case consisted largely of cellulosic

products, but with polyurethane foam cushioning for the upholstered chair.

The results are difficult to interpret since there were more variables than

number of tests.

Hagglund, Jansson, and Onnermark [19] and Jansson, et al., [20] at the

Swedish Defense Agency conducted two series of burns with upholstered

furniture. In the first series full size and model scale upholstered

chairs and sofas were used. The construction was either traditional, with

ordinary cotton batting type stuffing, or modern, using polyurethane foam.

Specimens were tested singly in a noncombustible room and were conditioned

to varying, prescribed relative humidity levels. The main variables con- sidered were time to flaming ignition, length of flaming period, maximum

weight loss rate, and presence or absence of flashover. Since a non-flaming

radiant ignition source was used, the cotton batting furniture achieved

flaming ignition in 34 to 120 minutes, while the polyurethane specimens

ignited in less than one minute.

The flaming period was somewhat longer for cotton batting than for

polyurethane foam furniture. Elevated humidity delayed ignition and

prolonged the flaming period of the cotton batting pieces but did not

affect the polyurethane foam ones. The mass loss rate was expressed as a fraction of the initial specimen mass. For cotton batting specimens the
rate was adequately expressible as 0.03 min-1

, while for polyurethane ones

it ranged from 0.05 to 0.10 min-1

. A final series of measurements obtained

from the first study was concerned with the establishment of a minimum gas

temperature for room flashover. It was found that 600° C corresponded to

flashover, as determined by visual observation of flames emerging from the

window.

The second test series explored the ignition of test targets by

upholstered furniture, extending, in effect, Theobald's work [14]. Four

burning objects were used, a sofa and an armchair, each in cotton batting

and polyurethane construction. Targets included paper, fiber stuffing,

foam plastic and wood. The maximum ignition distances ranged from 0.15 m

for the burning cotton batting armchair and wood block target, to 1.2 m for

a burning polyurethane foam sofa and fiber stuffing target.

In 1975, Hilado, et al., [21] conducted a series of full-scale furniture

fire tests in a corner configuration within a large open room. Three

upholstered pieces, two armchairs and a sofa, were included. Ignition was with a small polyethylene wastebasket filled with combustibles, 1 kg total

weight. The results reported were primarily the peak temperatures at

different heights and an integrated value of temperature over time.

Also in 1975, Fang [22] at NBS reported on a series of room fires with

upholstered chairs. Sixteen chairs with various upholstery fabrics and

either cotton, or cotton and polyurethane, or cotton/latex foam paddings

were tested. Ignition was with a methenamine timed burning tablet identical

to that used for testing carpets [23]. Maximum temperatures, heat fluxes,

and smoke concentrations were recorded at several locations, as were peak

mass loss rates. Also measured were maximum ignition distances for paper,

cotton cloth, and wood targets. The results were compared to those from

similar tests on wood cribs and were used to establish "wood crib equivalents"

for typical upholstered chairs.

The Southwest Research Institute conducted yet another furniture

flammability study in 1976, this time sponsored by the Products Research

Committee [24]. Two fully furnished living rooms were tested, one with

furniture, including upholstered furniture, characterized as "traditional,"

the second as "plastic." The construction in both types was, in fact,

traditional. The "plastic" furniture merely utilized polyurethane foam

instead of cotton batting cushioning. The furniture was ignited with a gas

burner. The plastic-furnished room showed a faster developing and more

severe fire.

The most ambitious studies to date have been the interrelated fullscale test programs conducted at the British Fire Research Station (FRS)

and those at the Rubber and Plastics Research Association (RAPRA) . The FRS

series [25-28] consisted of several investigations, including curtain,

carpet, and bed combustion tests in hotel and office rooms, and ignition

and smoldering studies of upholstered furniture. The main effort, however, was full-scale testing of upholstered chairs and sofas, both singly and in

fully-furnished living rooms. Some 22 pieces were tested singly, subjected

to different ignition sources, including cigarettes, matches, burning

paper, and wood cribs. A total of 19 fully- furnished living rooms were

burned, with the upholstered specimen being first ignited. In these tests

no rooms equipped with traditional (no foam plastic) furniture reached

flashover, but certain of the ones using foam plastic materials did. An

adequate room ventilation was one condition necessary for flashover. Some

of the foam plastic padded pieces burned so fast that their wooden frames

could not be adequately ignited before the fire burned out. The traditional

specimens, by contrast burned out slowly and completely. A limited amount

of experimentation was carried out with flame retardant treated polyurethane

foams and with varied upholstery fabrics. Poly (vinyl chloride) and viscose/

wool fabrics were seen to reduce the burning rate, while polypropylene

fabrics enhanced it.
The RAPRA series [29-36] involved rather similar studies. On the

largest scale, a series of tests was conducted in a furnished four room

house. Smaller in scale was a series of burns of three-piece living room

suites. The majority of the testing, however, was in a single room and

used two identical chairs a small distance apart. The chair construction

was kept similar while different combinations of padding and upholstery

fabric were tried. Foam latex padding generally showed the worst behavior,

foam polyurethane was somewhat better, while rubberized hair, wool batting,

and similar natural materials generally performed best.

Polypropylene and other thermoplastic fabrics were shown to behave

poorly when covering foam plastics. This was because, subjected to heating,

these materials rapidly shrank and pulled away, leaving the bare foam.

Since the presence of almost any covering over the foam can reduce flame

spread rate several fold, it is evident why the shrinking away behavior was

undesirable. Wool fabrics and natural hide products were most successful

in protecting the underlying foam. It was then found that the performance

of polyurethane foam/thermoplastic fabric combinations could be significantly

improved by providing a cotton fabric interliner, or better yet, one treated

with ammonium bromide/urea retardant. Ignition in most cases was with

newspaper; cigarettes were able to ignite only one foam/fabric combination.

Chair_ frame involvement was not relevant in this series since metal frames

were used. The resulting advisory publication to industry [34] points out

that, among factors to be considered, upholstery fabrics should not be

drawn too tight, less it promote splitting; that flaked foam cushions

especially need a good interliner; that cigarette "traps" be avoided, and

that, in view of the fact that vertical surfaces burn approximately three

times as fast as horizontal ones, the possibilities of using furrows as fire breaks be considered.

The RAPRA work, in fact, summarized much of all the previous studies

on padding and fabric effects, with emphasis on materials in common European

usage. More recent efforts have focused largely on the use of improved

interliners. Ashida [37], at the Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, for

instance, undertook testing of phenolic interliners in a two-chair test set

up similar to that of RAPRA. Newspaper was used to ignite the chairs,

which duplicated some polyurethane foam/modacrylic fabric specimens used by

RAPRA. Heavier thicknesses of phenolic interliner sufficed to prevent

adjacent chair ignition and to cause the initial fire to die out without

consuming much of the chair. A glass cloth interliner had similar effect.

Thinner grades of phenolic interliner did not prevent total burnout but did

delay it by about one hour.

The investigations reviewed above involved primarily attempts to

characterize the relative hazards of different types of furniture specimens.

Some investigators, however, have been concerned mainly with determining

pre-f lashover mass loss rates, to be used in various modeling efforts.

Pape [38] presented summary rate data from couch and chair burns at the IIT

Research Institute, and has also derived analytic approximations for typical

rates. Klein [39] burned a single type of upholstered chair and compared

its burning rate to several types of wood cribs. Tanaka [40] recently

reported on the mass loss rate and the temperature distribution above a burning sofa as part of a Japanese project on systems fire safety analysis.

No theoretical studies are available in the area of furniture burning

rates. Even the geometrical arrangement of most interest for furniture

burning (spread from a small source upwards and sideways on a vertical

surface) has only been reported in a single paper [41]

.
3. SCOPE OF WORK

The previous available studies, while elucidating some important

variables, did not establish as broad a data base as was desired for judging

the full-scale flaming combustion of upholstered chairs. Specifically,

explorations were lacking of the effects of chair shape and type of structural

support and controlled comparisons between chairs of similar construction

but different padding materials. Also, the more comprehensive of the previous

studies were done with furniture constructions as prevalent in Europe, rather

than in the United States. To answer some of these needed questions, a series

of full-scale test burns was conducted during 1975-76. The features of these

experiments were:

" Chairs were tested singly in a bare room, with fully open doorway

ventilation

• Ignition with newspaper at seat/arm joint for most tests

• Extensive room instrumentation

• Measurement of those variables needed for a consistent set of

tenability criteria.

With the exception of several tests designed to explore ignition

characteristics, this test series was focused on the performance of chairs once they are fully ignited with a flaming ignition source. Numerous sce- narios can be envisioned which lead to such ignitions, including a natural

switch-over from a smoldering state to open flaming. Detailed explorations

of the potential for flaming ignition are needed and are currently not available. Thus, the present tests are not to be constructed to represent total

fire histories, but merely that portion after sustained flaming ignition and

before the involvement of any additional fuel objects.

The tests were not designed for nor intended to be used for regulatory

purposes or for development of prescriptive specifications.

4. DESCRIPTION OF EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES AND INSTRUMENTATION

4.1 Test Room

The test burn room is shown in figures 1 and 2. It was 3.40 m x 3.50

m x 2.44 m high (11.2 ft x 11.5 ft x 8.0 ft), and is described in table 1.

The only opening to the room was an open doorway 0.91 m wide by 2.13 m high

(3.0 ft x 7.0 ft). The doorway opened into another chamber, which connected

to a corridor discharging into a hood and exhaust chimney containing an afterburner for smoke abatement. The flows through the doorway were essentially

unobstructed in this arrangement and previous work has determined that the

effect of the exhaust system on room temperatures and flow was negligible.

The ambient laboratory conditions during these tests were a temperature

of 20 to 25° C and a relative humidity of approximately 40%. For most tests,

except as mentioned later, there was no door in the room doorway.

Wall and ceiling linings consisted of 13-mm thick noncombustible

cement-asbestos board (Atlas Asbestos Co. "Superbestos" ) 3. On the walls and

ceiling this was applied over a 16-mm thick layer of Type-X gypsum wallboard.

The thermal properties of the cement asbestos board used were as follows

[42,43]:

3 Certain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this

paper in order to adequately specify the experimental procedure. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National

Bureau of Standards, nor does it imply that the material or equipment

identified is necessarily the best available for the purpose.

6
Temperature

(°C)

30 183 433 721

658

0.14

1060

626

0.16

1330

600

0.14

1340

557

0.14

1440

Density (kg/m 3

) Thermal conductivity (W/m-K)

Heat capacity (J/kg-K)

Emissivity was not measured but is estimated to be -0.9. Floor covering was

also cement-asbestos board.

4.2 Instrumentation

The instrumentation used in these experiments is indicated in figures

1 and 2 and table 2. The experiments were also recorded both on video film

and with still photographs. All instrument data were taken at 10-second

intervals on a high speed data acquisition system.

a) Thermocouples. Chromel-alumel 3 0-gage (0.25 mm) thermocouples

were located at the points shown. These thermocouples were

shielded with a metallic tube for most of their length except for

the last 20-30 mm before the junction end. This allowed fast

response time but did not introduce problems of insulation

degradation, which can be troublesome with unshielded flexible

thermocouples. Radiation corrections were made only to the

doorway thermocouples.

b) Heat flux meters. Gardon foil type water-cooled radiometers and

total heat flux meters were used.

c) Load cell. The weighing arrangement consisted of a BLH model

U3G1 load cell mounted above the ceiling of the burn room. The

specimen was placed on a cement-asbestos board platform (1.22 m wide by 1.22 m long) suspended by cable from the load cell.

d) Velocity probes. Bidirectional flow probes were located in the

doorway as shown in figure 2. This type of probe was developed

by Heskestad [44] for obtaining accurate low-velocity flow measure- ments under fire conditions which can involve water condensation

and flow reversal. McCaffrey and Heskestad [45] have provided

calibration techniques for these problems. The probes used were

12.7 mm in diameter, with construction details as given in the

above reference. The basic equation is:

V2Ap/£ = c(Re)

u where Ap = measured differential pressure, p = gas density

(obtained from thermocouple reading adjacent to the probe)

,

u = the gas velocity, and C(Re) is a constant which depends on the Reynolds number. For Reynolds numbers in the range of

interest the constant can be approximately taken as C = 1.08

according to the recommendation of McCaffrey and Heskestad.

Pressures were sensed with a Celesco P90D pressure transducer.

e) Gas sampling. Concentrations of CO, C0 2 , and 2 were measured at

a single location in the doorway. Gas analysis for CO and C0 2 was made with Beckman 315-B non-dispersive infrared analyzers.

A Beckman OM-11 oxygen analyzer was used for 2 . The sampling

line was fitted with a series of traps: a glass wool trap for

removing particulates, a dry ice trap to remove water, and,

finally, another glass wool trap.
f) Smoke meters. Photometers were located horizontally and vertically

in the doorways at the locations shown in figures 2 and 4. The

extinction beam smoke meters were specially constructed for room

burn experiments. The light sources consisted of incandescent

bulbs with color temperature in the range of 2900-3200 K. A

collimated system was used since it has been shown [46] that in

such case the error due to extraneous scattered light is small.

Calibration was achieved by placement of known optical density

filters in the light path.

5. TEST PROGRAM

5.1 Test Procedure

The chairs were individually tested in the room described above. No

other combustibles except for the ignition source were used. A total of 24

tests were conducted, using 16 different types of chairs. A schedule of

tests is given in table 3.

5.2 Ignition Sources

Several ignition sources were used in the series in attempting to

evolve a small reproducible source. A 12 ml cup of alcohol, placed at the

side of the chair, was tried in some preliminary testing. This gave a rather large ignition flame, but one which did not establish reliable flame

spread. It appeared that a source placed in the concave, inside portion of

the chair would be better than one at the convex, outside surface. With an inside ignition it could be expected that radiative reinforcement of burning

would occur as several surfaces were ignited. Thus, for most of the tests

a source was adopted consisting of a folded up newspaper placed on the seat

next to the arm, and ignited at its back edge. Eighteen double newspaper

sheets were used, weighing 396 + 22 g. Other sources tried were a metal

wastebasket filled with trash and placed next to the outside of the chair arm (one test) , and a lighted cigarette (two tests) , placed in the crevice

between the seat cushion and the side arm. Source Test

Wastebasket 03

Cigarette 08,13

Newspaper all others

5.3 Ventilation Conditions

The standard conditions consisted of natural ventilation through a single opening, the open doorway. For two tests, however, more restricted

ventilation was used, to determine the effect of smaller openings. In test

06 the doorway was closed off and a window opening was provided. The

window size was 0.72 m x 0.91 m high, with the window top being at the same height as the doorway top. In test 07 a door was installed in the opening

and only partly opened, leaving a 0.18 m wide opening.

5.4 Description of Test Chairs

For convenience in the chair descriptions the type of construction is

often categorized as traditional or modern. By traditional construction,

it is meant that there exists a primary load-bearing frame, made of wood,

and using springs, webbing or similar devices to support padding materials.

This type of construction usually also entails a separate, stuffed, lay-in

seat cushion. It is to be noted that the traditional construction chair

may be part or all plastic materials for cushioning and upholstery. By

modern construction is meant any type except the above traditional construction.

8
Chair C01

Chair C01 was typical for a traditional-style easy chair with a lay-in

cushion. The structural frame was made of wood and provided with metal

springs for seat support. Upholstery fabric was a cotton lightweight print of

0.18 kg/m2

. For comfort reasons, the filling layer directly under the

upholstery fabric was cotton batting. Polyurethane foam comprised the seat

cushion and also was contained underneath the batting in the seat cushion

area and inside back area. Minor upholstery components included cardboard, non-woven polyethylene, woven polypropylene, and cotton denim. The chair

is illustrated in figure 3. Material Weight (kg)

Wood (poplar) 7.1

Cotton batting 1.6

Polyurethane foam (21 kg/m 3

) 1.3

Upholstery, cotton print (0.18 kg/m2

) 0.6

Cardboard 0.8

Polyethylene (non-woven) and polypropylene (woven) 0.2

Metal parts 0.9

Total weight 12.6*

*Weight totals do not always add due to rounding

Chair C02

Chair C02 , shown in figure 4, was identical to chair C01 except for the

upholstery fabric. A medium weight polypropylene fabric of 0.35 kg/m2 was

used.

Material Weight (kg)

Wood (poplar) 7.1

Cotton batting 1.6

Polyurethane foam (21 kg/m2

) 1.3

Upholstery, polypropylene (0.35 kg/m2

) 1.1

Cardboard 0.8

Polyethylene and polypropylene (excl. upholstery) 0.2

Metal parts 0.

9

Total weight 13.1

Chair C03

Chair C03, shown in figure 5, was again similar to chair C01 except for

the upholstery fabric. A heavy nylon fabric of 0.50 kg/m2 was used.

Material Weight (kg)

Wood (poplar) 7.1

Cotton batting 1.6

Polyurethane foam (21 kg/m3

) 1.3

Upholstery, nylon (0.50 kg/m2

) 1.6

Cardboard 0.8

Polyethylene and polypropylene 0.2

Metal parts 0.9

Total weight 13.

6
Chair C04

Chair C04, shown in figure 6, was similar to chair C03, except that

all the cotton batting was replaced by polyurethane foam. The same nylon

upholstery fabric was used as in chair C03. The components were not

individually weighed, but the construction details were similar to chair

C03.

Total weight 12.2 kg

Chair C05

Chair C05, shown in figure 7, was a bean bag chair, comprised of

only two components: a "wet look" cotton-backed vinyl fabric and low

density polystyrene foam beads.

Material Weight (kg)

Cotton-backed vinyl fabric (0.65 kg/m2

) 2.0

Polystyrene foam beads 5 .2

Total weight 7.3

Chair C06

Chair C06, shown in figure 8, was a large modern design chair that can be

made into a bed. There was a loose cushion but no structural frame. The

pillow was stuffed with shredded polyurethane foam, while the body of the

chair consisted of a block of slab urethane foam. Both were upholstered

with an acrylic "fake fur."

Material Weight (kg)

Slab polyurethane foam (35 kg/m 3

) 13.5

Shredded polyurethane foam 2.4

Upholstery, acrylic fake fur (0.65 kg/m2

) 4 .

6

Total weight 20.

4

Chair C07

Chair C07, shown in figure 9, was of modern design, with a one-piece

molded frame and two loose cushions. The molded polystyrene structural

foam frame was strengthened with plywood inserts and overlaid with polyurethane

foam padding glued in place. The upholstery fabric was a simulated leather,

made of thin foamed polyurethane, with a non-woven polyolefin backing. The

seat and back cushions were similarly upholstered, over polyurethane foam

slabs, and were held in place by thongs.

Material Weight (kg)

Polystyrene foam (35 kg/m 3

) 4.5

Polyurethane foam (26 kg/m 3

) 4.9

Plywood 0.8

Polyolefin 0.1

Upholstery fabric (0.65 kg/m2 ), 85% polyurethane,

15% polyolefin 3.0

Metal parts- 0.1

Total weight 11.4

10
Chair C08

Chair C08, shown in figure 10, was a modern style pedestal swivel

chair. The structural frames of the chair body and the base were both

molded polyethylene. Polyurethane foam, mostly shredded, was the

cushioning material, with upholstery of vinyl fabric with denim backing.

Material Weight (kg)

Polyethylene 10.6

Polyurethane foam 3.1

Vinyl fabric, denim backing 1.7

Metal parts 0.

9

Total weight 16.3

Chair C09

Chair C09, shown in figure 11, was a modern design simulated leather

overstuffed chair. The body was a single piece of flexible cold-molded

polyurethane foam. The structure was rigidified with pieces of wood in the arms and at the base. Metal springs were anchored to the wood base. The

polyurethane structure was covered by 2 5-50 mm of polyester batting and

upholstered with a polyurethane foam imitation leather material. There were no individual cushions.

Material Weight (kg)

Polyurethane foam (58 kg/m 3

) 8.7

Polyester batting 1.1

Polyurethane upholstery (0.41 kg/m2

) 1.5

Wood 5 . Metal parts 0.

4

Total weight 16.6

Chair C10

Chair C10, shown in figure 12, was another modern design pedestal

chair. The shell was a one-piece molding of rigid polyurethane foam molded

on a plywood bottom piece and supported on a metal pedestal. The rigid

foam shell was covered with a layer of flexible polyurethane foam, 2 5 mm

thick on the inside and 6 mm on the outside. A single polyurethane foam

cushion was provided. Upholstery material was polyurethane foam imitation

leather with a woven cotton backing.

Material Weight (kg)

Polyurethane foam, rigid (80 kg/m 3

) 4.0

Polyurethane foam, flexible (10 kg/m 3

) 1.5

Polyurethane/cotton upholstery (0.81 kg/m2

) 1.6

Plywood 1.6

Metal base 3.

5

Total weight 12.1

11
Chair Cll

Chair Cll, shown in figure 13, consisted of a solid polyurethane foam

block, covered with nylon upholstery fabric. The upholstery fabric was bonded to the foam block everywhere, except at the bottom. No separate

frame or support was used. Foam density was 28 kg/m 3

; the upholstery

density had a surface density of 0.67 kg/m2

. Total weight 14.3 kg

Chair C12

Chair C12, shown in figure 14, was of traditional construction, similar

to chair C03, except that no polyurethane foam was used. A wood structural

frame was padded with cotton batting and upholstered with a nylon fabric

with a density of 0.50 kg/m2

. Total Weight 17.9 kg

Chair C13

Chair C13, shown in figure 15, was similar to chair C04 except for the

inclusion of an interliner. A neoprene foam interliner, 4.8 mm thick, was bonded to the inside of the nylon upholstery fabric.

Total weight 19.1 kg

Chair C14

Chair C14, shown in figure 16, was similar to chairs C04 and C13

except for the upholstery fabric, which was polypropylene. The neoprene

interliner in this case was separate, not bonded to the fabric.

Total weight 21.8 kg

Chair C15

Chair C15, shown in figure 17, was similar to chairs C04 and C13

except for the upholstery fabric, which was polypropylene. The neoprene

interliner was bonded to the inside of the polypropylene upholstery

fabric

.

Total weight 21.8 kg

Chair C16

Chair C16, shown in figure 18, was similar to chairs C04 and C13, and was upholstered with nylon fabric. The neoprene interliner was separate,

not bonded to the fabric.

Total weight 19.1 kg

6 . CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

The criteria for evaluating test burn results largely followed those

adopted in a previous study [47] . A brief summary is given below. Detailed

12
reasoning for selecting these criteria values has been set forth in the

referenced study. The approach was based on the following tenets:

• Time-to-a-condition is a more realistic measure than is the maximum

value of some measurement variable.

• The only possible safety factor on which agreement might possibly be

reached is a zero safety factor. The user, however, can always apply

a desired safety factor onto the basic data. The tenability criteria

thus are based on "incipient incapacitation."

• "Super toxicity", that is incapacitation by noxious gases or aerosols

other than CO, CO2 or 2 deprivation, has not been considered. A

proper, reliable, and routinely feasible method is still wanting.

• Gas sampling and smoke obscuration were measured near the top of the

doorway. This was done for reasons of convenience and reproducibility.

It is understood, however, that this procedure introduces an unwanted

safety factor.

Since CO symptoms are primarily associated not with instantaneous

concentrations, but with equilibrated carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) values,

an uptake equation, discussed in [47] was used to calculate reference

COHb values.

• The criteria used are considered relevant to the situation of an occupant of the room of fire origin, but one not intimately connected

with the ignition.

The success criteria used were as follows:

Room Flashover

Heat Flux <_ 2 kW/m2 at the floor

Tenability

A. Heat flux exposure •: 2.5 kW/m2 B. Gas concentrations

C0 2 1 8%

2 > 14%

COHb calculated level <: 25% (subject to an instantaneous

ceiling for CO of 50,000 ppm)

C. Smoke obscuration

extinction coefficient <_ 1.2 m~ l

7. RESULTS

The basic test results are given in table 4 and in figures 19 through

38. The variables given are: temperature, taken as the average of TC

09,37,51; radiant heat flux, as measured at the west wall; weight loss

rate; smoke, as measured 0.31 m below doorway top; and gas concentration

for C0 2 , 2 , and CO, as measured near the top of the doorway.

7.1 Ignition Source Effects

The difference between cigarette and newspaper ignition were examined

on chair C01 in tests 08, 10, 13, and 23. The times to peak wall heat flux

(table 5) can be considered as indicative. For the two newspaper ignition

tests, 10 and 23, these times were 360 and 290 s, respectively. For the

cigarette ignition tests, 08 and 13, the times were 5070 and 2970 s. Thus,

the newspaper ignition results are seen to be close, while the cigarette

ignition ones are nearly a factor of 2 apart. The difference in times in

13
the latter case can be attributed to the unpredictability of the transition

from smoldering to flaming. Open flaming occurred at 4980 s in test 08,

but at 2820 s in test 13. This difference serves to emphasize the fact

that although smoldering-to-flaming transition is an important event in

hazard analysis, it is highly variable and difficult to model or predict.

Another ignition comparison has been made, between wastebasket and

newspaper ignition. Chair C03 was ignited in test 03 with a wastebasket

and in test 04 with newspaper. As expected, the larger wastebasket source produced a faster fire development rate. However, the record of observations

(Appendix) also shows that the wastebasket source fire retreated after the

initial high burning rate and then later built up again. The newspaper

ignited fire burned more steadily. This is attributable to the source placement at an inside, concave location, rather than at the outside periphery.

The concave location provides for increased flame re-radiation effect,

encouraging a steady fire growth. Thus, limited exploration of alternate

ignition sources indicated that the choice of newspaper ignition was appropriate for the purposes desired.

7.2 Ventilation Effects

As described earlier, one of the chair types, C02, was run at two

levels of reduced ventilation, a part-open door and a window opening. The

two restricted openings had the same ventilation factor A / h = 0.56 m 5 / 2

. (A = opening area, h = opening height.) By comparison, the ventilation

factor for the standard opening was 2.8 3 mV2

. The heat fluxes for the

restricted openings were slightly higher than for the standard opening.

Thus, a door size effect can be detected and the value, of course, should

be held constant for accurate specimen comparisons. Scaling rules, however,

are not yet available which would enable the effect to be predicted.

7.3 Reproducibility

Replicate tests under standard conditions were run for chairs C01

(tests 10, 23), C03 (tests 02, 04), and C04 (tests 09, 14). An examination

of the data shown in tables 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 shows a median disagreement

of 7% between replicates. This is considered to be a satisfactory value for

full-scale furnishings fire tests.

7.4 General Observations

The course of the test fires is indicated by the measured variables

shown in figures 19 through 38. Photographs of the chairs at near peak

burning time are given in figures 3 through 18. A detailed log of observations for each test is given in the appendix. The majority of specimens--

those with thermoplastic upholstery or foam padding--tended to melt and

drip burning droplets. The intensity of this melting and of a resultant

pool fire under the chair varied significantly among the specimens. Only

one specimen, C06, led to room flashover. Only two chairs, C01 and C12 did

not exceed any tenability limits. The remaining exceeded the limits at

times ranging from 2690 s to 120 s. Tables 6, 8, and 11 list detailed

times to failure based on tests with standard ignition and ventilation

conditions. Of the chairs burned under standard conditions, most were at

least 2/3 consumed at the end of the test. Table 4 lists weight losses and mass loss rates. All specimens substantially burned up; the fraction of

combustible mass consumed ranged from 47 to 100%, averaging 82%. Mass loss

rates are not available for some tests where the weighing mechanism failed.

The peak mass loss rates varied from 13.1 g/s for chair C15 to 151 g/s for

chair C06. The second highest mass loss rate, 112 g/s, was recorded for

chair C08, which did not lead to flashover.

14
7.5 Performance Ranking

The performance of the test chairs can be categorized into four groups

(table 12) . Earlier studies [47] have established that for categorizing the

performance of furnishings in full-scale tests such a division is meaningful.

To establish with a degree of certainty the relative position within a group would generally require a substantial amount of replicate testing.

In the present study, however, certain behavior patterns emerge when withingroup performance is considered. For this reason, the results in table 12 are arranged within groups not in numerical order but according to actual

times. For any potential future standard testing methods, however, it

would not be appropriate to try to identify more than the performance

group

.

It must be emphasized that the groupings below reflect solely the

flaming ignition behavior. Cigarette ignition resistance was not measured

in these tests. Well performing specimens might still require additional

measures to achieve adequate cigarette resistance.

Group A- -two chairs did not exceed any of the tenability criteria.

Both were of traditional construction.

Group B--six chairs exceeded the smoke obscuration criterion, but did

not exceed any of the other criteria. Five of these chairs were of traditional construction. The remaining specimen was

a bean bag chair and showed the second worst behavior in this

group.

Group C--chairs in this group did not lead to room flashover but

exceeded either the gas concentration or the radiant heat

flux criteria. In most cases they also exceeded the smoke

criterion. Since the ill effects of exceeding these two

criteria are better characterized and more certain, it is

appropriate to distinguish this group as more hazardous than

Group B. Two traditional and five modern construction specimens were in this group. Both the best and the worst performing

specimens in this group were traditional, with the modern

pieces falling in between.

Group D--one chair, of massive foam block construction, failed all

criteria and led to room flashover.

7.6 Effect of Type of Construction

The best performing chairs--Group A and five of six in Group B--were

of traditional construction. The one chair in Group D was of modern foam

block construction. Within Group C the best performing chair was also of

traditional construction. A salient exception was C04 , which ranked at the

end of the group. Chair C04 did have a higher polyurethane foam content

than the similar type chairs C01, C02, and C03 since, unlike in the others,

no cotton batting was used in it. Thus, a trend can be seen for less desirable

fire performance from the modern than from the traditional construction

chairs. The trend is only a trend, however, and there were individual

modern specimens that performed better than some of the traditional ones.

7.7 Effect of Upholstery Material

Chairs C01, C02 , C03 were of the same construction with the exception

of upholstery fabric. The fabric was cotton for C01, polypropylene for

C02, and nylon for C03. C02 and C03 exceeded tenability limits at 150 and

215 s, respectively, a difference which is not considered significant. C01

did not exceed any tenability limits, demonstrating the markedly better

performance of the cotton upholstery fabric over the thermoplastic fabrics.

15
7.8 Effect of Interliners

Chairs C13, C14, C15 and C16 each contained a 4 . 8 mm thick neoprene

foam interliner under the upholstery fabric. Chair C04 was, by comparison,

of the same construction but without an interliner. The interliner was bonded to the fabric of C13 and C15 and was not attached in C14 and C16.

The performance (table 12) varied quite a bit, with C13 showing the best

performance within this group and C14 the worst. All the chairs with

interliners showed better performance than C04, without an interliner. The

scatter of the data was considerable, however, and differences between the

performance of bonded and unbonded specimens could not be detected.

7.9 Effect of Padding Material

Chairs C03, C04, and C12 were of the same construction with the exception

of the padding material. The padding was polyurethane foam for C04, cotton

batting for C12 , and polyurethane foam topped with cotton batting for C03.

The performance of C12 was good, with no tenability criteria being exceeded

(Group A) . Chair CO 3 fell in Group B, while Chair C04 ranked at the bottom

of Group C. This progression illustrates well the desirability of minimizing

the amount of polyurethane foam used in the chair construction. The construction features of Chair C06 should be considered in view of this being the only

chair that flashed over the test room. Chair C06 contained a larger amount,

15.9 kg, of polyurethane foam than any of the other test chairs. Thus,

excessive amounts of polyurethane foam can be seen to lead to detrimental

behavior.

8. IMPLICATIONS FOR STANDARDIZED TESTING

Upholstered furniture can likely be considered one of the most difficult

furnishing objects to subject to standarized fire testing. Significant

progress has been made in the case of some furnishings items, such as carpeting and mattresses. In those cases, however, the item is always of a fixed, simple geometry. In the case of upholstered furniture the geometry

is variable and yet its effects are important (as demonstrated, for instance,

by the differences between outside wastebasket and inside newspaper ignition)

.

It should be noted that the geometry problem is particularly acute for flaming

ignition testing. In the case of smoldering ignition, flame radiation,

surface re-radiation and similar geometry effects do not play a role. Thus,

standard tests [3,48] for smoldering resistance of upholstered furniture

have been possible.

So far, there has been only limited impetus for mandated requirements

of flaming ignition resistance for upholstered furniture. In the few cases

that requirements have been set or proposed, small test specimens have been

used and no account taken of geometric effects. The following examples can

be cited:

--The Port of New York Authority [49] has for some years had a furniture

flammability specification requiring the testing of upholstery fabric

materials by Federal Specification CCC-T-191b Method 5903 and the

testing of the padding materials by either ASTM E 84 (Tunnel Test) or ASTM E 162 (Radiant Panel Test)

.

--The State of California [50] requires that upholstered furniture

meet a standard which separately regulates upholstery fabric and

padding materials. Upholstery fabrics are tested according to

Commercial Standard 191-53, while padding material is tested by

CCC-T-191b Method 5903 using a specially modified sample holder. —The British Plastics Federation [51] proposed tests for upholstered

furniture where flaming ignition sources are included. However,

in their procedure the article was extinguished once ignition was

16
achieved. The test, therefore, largely avoids confronting the

issue of geometric effects.

--RAPRA [52] has proposed a series of tests for furnishings, including

upholstered furniture, which would determine the ignitability and

burning rate of specimens in several orientations. The test

geometry and the full-scale geometry are not tied in, however,

so validity is not proven. —British Standards Institution [53] has recently proposed a test

method that includes flaming ignition resistance and uses a gas

burner and small wood cribs. Again, the behavior past the point

of ignition is not determined.

Any of the above tests might have legislative validity in the sense that enforced compliance would result in the elimination of some high hazard

designs. The more important long range technical issue that still needs

to be solved, however, is whether bench-scale tests could be produced that

take into account geometric aspects and can accurately predict full-scale

behavior. Such tests are still wanting.

9. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The upholstered test chairs, when burned under standarized full-scale

test conditions, showed widely varying flammability behavior. The best

performing chairs did not cause any tenability criteria to be exceeded,

while the worst performing one exceeded the criteria at 100 s and then led

to room flashover at 2 80 s. All chairs substantially burned up in the course of the test, with the

average combustible mass loss weight 82%.

An inside, seat area ignition proved to be desirable for causing a steady, propagating fire.

Reproducibility was satisfactory for identical replicates; however,

similar but not identical chairs often burned quite differently.

A low fuel load for foam padding and any thermoplastic structural

components and slow flame spread behavior of the upholstery material were both needed to ensure satisfactory specimen performance. Those chairs

where only one of these factors was controlled did not perform well in the

tests.

A neoprene interliner was of modest benefit in improving the burning

behavior.

Specimen geometry played a large role in determining its behavior.

This fact makes it unlikely that predictive bench-scale tests could be

developed which use only cut through-the-thickness samples and which do not

model flame radiation and surface re-radiation.

10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

King-Mon Tu provided the original experiment formulation and conducted

the tests. Sanford Davis guided the project and provided continuity.

Robin Breese assisted in data reduction.

17
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.

Brochhagen, F., Efforts of the European Urethane Industry on Safety

and Environment (SC-35) . Presented at the 17th National Cellular

Plastics Conference on Safety and Product Liability, Washington (1974)

.

Dawson, J. W. et al . , Flexible Polyurethane Foam, Effect of Covering

Materials on the Fire Behavior of Upholstered Furniture. International

Isocyanate Institute, Inc. Intercompany Urethane Panel (1973).

Wood, J. F. et al., RAPRA 3--Summary of Principal Conclusions, n.p.,

(1974) . Wilson, W. J., Large Scale Fire Tests, Journal of Fire and Flammability,

1, 112-124 (January 1976).

Prager, F. H., Study of the Burning Behavior of Upholstered Furniture,

Journal of Fire and Flammability, 9_, 71-87 (January 1978).

Simpson, B. , Flexible Polyurethane Foam, Its Uses and Misuses, British

Rubber Manufacturers' Assn., London (n.d.).

Anyos, T., A Summary Report on Fire Tests of Types of Flexible Polyurethane Foams and Other Materials for Bedding and Cushioning

(PYC-4319) . Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park (1976).

19
Wood, J. F., Interim Report No. 1, Product Research Committee Project

RP-75-1-13, International Isocynate Institute (1976).

Ashida, K. et al., Full-scale Investigation of the Fire Performance of

Urethane Foam Cushions Using Novoloid Fiber Products as Interliner

(Report SC/JD-1) , Market Development Research Laboratories Research

Center, Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd., n.p. (1976).

Pape, R. et al., Semistochastic Approach to Predicting the Development

of a Fire in a Room from Ignition to Flashover. Program Documentation

and Users Guide, IIT Research Institute (1976) . Issued by National

Bureau of Standards (NBS-GCR-77-111)

.

Klein, D. P., Characteristics of incidental fires in the living room

of a mobile home, Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), NBSIR 78-1522 (1978).

Tanaka, T., Development of an Evaluation System for Fire Protection

Performance of Dwelling Houses. Paper presented to the Fourth Joint

Meeting, U.S. Japan Panel of Fire Research and Safety, UJNR, Tokyo

(1979)

.

Hansen, . and Sibulkin, M. , Flame Spreading from a Point Source of

Ignition <n a Vertical Fuel Surface, Combustion Science and Technology,

9, 173-1 (1974)

.

Atlas At>: --5stos Co., Montreal, Form AA6-3237.

Harmathy, T. Z., National Research Council of Canada, personal

communication

.

Heskestad, G., Bidirectional Flow Tube for Fire-Induced Vent Flows.

In: Large-scale Bedroom Fire Test, July 11, 1973. P. A. Croce and

H. W. Emmons, eds., FMRC Serial 21011.4, 140-5, Factory Mutual Research

Corp., Norwood (1974).

McCaffrey, B. J. and Heskestad, G. , A Robust Bidirectional Low-velocity

Probe for Flame and Fire Application, Combustion and Flame, 2_6, 125-7

(1976) .

Jin, T. , Effects of Scattered Light on the Measurement of Smoke Density,

Report of Fire Research Institute of Japan, No. 34, 33-7 (1971).

Babrauskas, V., Combustion of mattresses exposed to flaming ignition

sources. Part I. Full-scale tests and hazard analysis. Nat. Bur.

Stand. (U.S.), NBSIR 77-1290 (1977).

Technical Bulletin 116. State of California, Department of Consumer

Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings, Sacramento (1975).

Specifications Governing the Flammability of Upholstery Materials and

Plastic Furniture. The Port of New York Authority, New York (1971)

.

Technical Information Bulletin 117. State of California, Department

of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings, Sacramento (1975).

Furniture--An Approach to Reducing the Fire Hazard, Fire, 69^ 859-9

(December 1976)

.

Taylor, W. , Proposed Methods of Fire Testing of Materials Used in the

Contents of Buildings (Members Report No. 8) . Rubber and Plastics

Research Association of Great Britain, Shawbury (1977)

.

Tests for the Ignitability of Upholstered Seating (Draft DD58:1978),

British Standards Institute, London (1978).

20
Table 1. Summary of burn room characteristics

Height /width/depth (m) 2.44/3.40/3.50

Floor area (m2

) 11.90

Doorway height (m) 2.13

Doorway width (m) 0.91

Doorway area (m 2

) 1.94

Doorway A /h (m 5/2

) 2.83

Soffit depth * (in) 0.31

Surface area (excluding floor and

doorway) (m2

) 43.63

Doorway area/surface area 0.0445

Doorway A /h /surface area (in1 ' 2

) 0.0649

^Distance from ceiling to top of door

21
Table 2. List of instrumentation

Number

01

02

03

04

05

06

0708

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

1718

19

20

21

2223

24

25

26

2728

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

Thermocouples

On E wall, 1.22 m from S wall, 1.83 m from ceiling

On unexposed wall surface, behind TC 01

On E wall, 1.22 m from S wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

On unexposed wall surface, behind TC 03

On floor, 0.92 m from E wall, 2.75 m from

wall, 2. wall, 1. 0.92 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S 0.92 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S 0.92 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S 0.92 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S On ceiling, 0.92 m from E wall, 2 On unexposed wall surface, behind TC 10

On S wall, 0.92 m from E wall, on floor

wall, 0.92 m from

S wall

14 m from

53 m from

wall, 0.92 m from

wall, 0.31 m from

75 m from S wall

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On s wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On S wall, 0.92 m from E On N wall, 1.22 m from Ewall, 2.14 m from ceiling

wall, 1.83 m from ceiling

wall, 1.53 m from ceiling

wall, 1.22 m from ceiling

wall, 0.92 m from ceiling

wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

wall, 0.31 m from ceiling

wall, 0.15 m from ceiling

wall, 0.08 m from ceiling

wall, on ceiling

wall, 1.83 m from ceiling

Center of room, Center of room, Center of room, Center of room,

On unexposed wall surface, behind TC 23

Center of room, on floor

2.14 m from ceiling

1.53 m from ceiling

0.92 m from ceiling

0.31 m from ceiling

Center of room, on ceiling

On unexposed ceiling surface, behind TC 30

1.83 m from E.wall, 0.92 m from S wall, on floor

wall, 0.92 m from S wall, 0.92 m from S wall, 0.92 m from S wall, 0.92 m from S1.83 m from

1.83 m from

1.83 in from

1.83 m from

On ceiling,

wall, 2.14 m from

wall, 1.53 m from

wall, 0.92 m from

wall, 0.31 m from

83 m from E wall, 0.92 m from S wall

On unexposed ceiling surface, behind TC 37

1.83 m from E wall, 0.15 m from S wall, 2.14 m from

1.83 m from E wall, 0.15 m from S wall, 1.53 m from

1.83 m from E wall, 0.15 m from S wall, 0.92 m from

1.83 m from E wall, 0.15 m from S wall, 0.31 m from

wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

behind TC 43

wall, 2.44 m from E wall, 1.03 m from ceiling

wall, 2.44 m from E wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

wall, on floor, 2.44 m from E wall

2.75 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S wall, 2.14 m from

2.75 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S wall, 1.53 m from

2.75 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S wall, 0.92 m from

2.75 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S wall, 0.31 m from

On ceiling, 2.75 m from E wall, 2.75 m from S wall

On unexposed ceiling surface, behind TC 52

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

On N wall, 2.44 m from E On exposed wall surface,

On S On S On S ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

ceiling

22
Table 2. (continued)

54

5556

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

82

90

91

92

93

100

101

102

103

104

105

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

2.14 m from ceiling

1.53 m from ceiling

0.92 m from ceiling

0.31 m from ceiling

0.31 m below top

0.66 m below top

1.07 m below top

1.37 m below

1.91 m below

0.46 m below

0.92 m below

1.68 m below

2.75 m from E wall, 0.92 m from S wall,

2.75 m from E wall, 0.92 m from S wall,

2.75 m from E wall, 0.92 m from S wall,

2.75 m from E wall, 0.92 m from S wall,

At doorway center line, 0.13 m below top

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline, 1.37 m below top At doorway centerline, 1.91 m below top At doorway centerline, 0.46 m below top At doorway centerline, 0.92 m below top At doorway centerline, 1.68 m below top

On W wall, 0.61 m from S wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

On ceiling, 1.70 m from S wall, 2.89 m from E wall

On floor, 1.70 m from S wall, 2.59 m from E wall

At doorway centerline, 0.08 m below top

Smoke Meters

Horizontal in doorway, 0.31 m from ceiling (1.0 m light path)

Horizontal in doorway, 0.61 m from ceiling (1.0 m light path)

Horizontal in doorway, 1.22 m from ceiling (1.0 m light path)

Vertical in doorway centerline (2.44 m light path)

Velocity Probes

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline,

At doorway centerline, 0.13 m below top

Heat Flux Meters

Radiometer, on W wall, 0.61 m from S wall, 0.61 m from ceiling

Total heat flux meter, same location as HFM110

Radiometer, on floor, 1.70 m from S wall, 2.58 m from E wall

Total heat flux meter, same location as HFM112

Radiometer, on ceiling, 1.70 m from S wall, 2.89 from E wall

Total heat flux meter, same location as HFM114

Radiometer, on ceiling, center of room

Total heat flux meter, same location as HFM116

Load Cell

Load Cell

1,,91 m below top

1,,37 m below top

1.,07 m below top

0.,66 m below top

0,,31 m below top

Gas Concentration Probes

120 Carbon dioxide, at doorway centerline, 0.025 m below top

121 Carbon monoxide, at doorway centerline, 0.025 m below top

122 Oxygen, at doorway centerline, 0.025 m below top

23
Table 3. Schedule of tests

Specimen Construction (padding; cover) Test Conditions

C01

C02

C03

C04

C05

C06

C07

C08-

C09

CIO

Cll

C12

C13

C14

C15

C16

traditional (polyur ethane, cotton;

cotton)

traditional (polyurethane, cotton;

polypropylene)

traditional (polyurethane; cotton; nylon)

traditional (polyurethane; nylon)

bean bag (polystyrene beads; PVC)

modern (polyurethane foam block;

acrylic)

modern (polystyrene, polyurethane;

polyurethane)

modern (polyethylene; polyurethane)

modern (polyurethane, polyester;

polyurethane)

modern (polyurethane; polyurethane)

modern (polyurethane foam block;

nylon)

traditional (cotton; nylon)

traditional (polyurethane, interliner;

nylon)

traditional (polyurethane, interliner;

polypropylene)

traditional (polyurethane, interliner;

polypropylene)

traditional (polyurethane, interliner;

nylon)

08 cigarette ignition

10 standard

13 cigarette ignition

23 standard

05 standard

06 window-sized opening

07 door part-open

02 standard

03 wastebasket ignition

04 standard

09 standard

14 standard

11 standard

25 standard

17 standard

18 standard

16 standard

19 standard

12 standard

15 standard

20 standard

21 standard

22 standard

24 standard

24
Tabic 4. Specimen weights and weight loss

Combustible Time at Total Combustible Weight Content Peak Mass Peak Mass

Weight Weight Loss Consumed Loss Rate Loss Rate

Specimen Test (kg) (kg) (kg) (%) (g/s) (s)

C01 08 12.6 11.7 10.85 93 21.8 5090

10 12.6 11.7 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

13 12.6 11.7 10.96 94 15.3 2900

23 12.6 11.7 11.60 99 17.5 310

C02 05 13.1 12.2 6.08 50 13.2 350

06 13.1 12.2 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

07 13.1 12.2 6.42 53 11.8 320

C03 02 13.6 12.7 6.01 47 N.A. N.A.

03 13.6 12.7 11.8 93 34.5 550

04 13.6 12.7 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

C04 09 12.2 11.3 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

14 12.2 11.3 10.44 92 75.7 340

C05 11 7.3 7.3 7.3 100 22.2 510

C06 25 20.4 20.4 14.02 69 151 150

C07 17 11.4 11.2 11.2 100 86.9 360

C08 18 16.3 15.4 15.4 100 112 760

C09 16 16.6 16.3 15.82 97 N.A. N.A.

CIO 19 12.1 8.6 7.22 84 15.2 600

Cll 12 14.3 14.3 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

C12 15 17.9 17.0 12.04 71 19.0 1720

C13 20 19.1 18.2 14.28 78 15.0 1200

C14 21 21.8 20.9 13.85 66 13.7 1380

C15 22 21.8 20.9 N.A. N.A. 13.1 650

C16 24 19.1 18.2 13.10 72 N.A. N.A.

N.A. - Not Available

25
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26
Table 6. Times to exceed critical radiant heat flux (2.5 kW/m2

) (measured at west wall)

Specimen Test Time (s)

C01 08

10

13

23

C02 0506

07 150

C03 02

03 370

04

C04 09 230

14 230

C05 11

C06 25 110

C07 17 250

C08 18 720

C09 16 550

CIO 19

Cll 12 950

C12 15

C13 20

C14 21

C15 22

C16 24

27
Table 7. Peak smoke extinction coefficients

Doorway

Horizontal Doorway

Specimen Test 0.30m

k

below top

Time

Vertical

k Time

(m-1

) (s) (m"1

) (s)

C01 08 1.33 4980 1.02 4980

10 0.83 350 0.39 350

13 4.1 2840 2.1 2820

23 1.0 280 0.45 280

C02 05 3.2 190 1.41 190

06 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

07 2.4 190 1.55 160

C03 02 2.9 230 1.11 230

03 2.9 380 1.33 380

04 2.8 240 1.20 230

C04 09 2.7 340 1.60 340

14 2.6 310 1.48 310

C05 11 >6.7 N.A.

> 2.8 N.A.

C06 25 5.6 200 2.5 210

C07 17 >6.7 N.A. >2.8 N.A.

C08 18 6.4 220 2.6 250

C09 16 1.58 600 0.96 610

CIO 19 >6.7 N.A. 2.0 610

Cll 12 4.4 1110 2.5 1120

C12 15 0.50 540 N.A. N.A.

C13 20 2.7 790 1.36 750

C14 21 1.18 610 0.68 380

C15 22 3.3 330 1.47 320

C16 24 1.73 600 0.89 590

N.A. - Not Available

28
Table 8. Times to exceed critical level of smoke extinction coefficient

Specimen Test

Time to Reach k = 1.2m_l 0.30m Below Top

of Doorway

(s)

C01

C02

C03

C04

C05

C06

C07

C08

C09

CIO

Cll

C12

C13

C14

C15

C16

08

10

13

23

0506

07

0203

04

09

14

11

25

17

18

16

19

12

15

20

21

22

24

4980

1660

150

N.A. 150

210

380

220

210

220

210

100

120

140

470

480

940

650

280

490

N.A. - Not Available

29
Table 9. Peak gas concentrations

Oxygen Carbon Dioxide Carbon Monoxide

Specimen Test Min. Time Peak Time Peak Time

<%) (s) (%) (s) (ppm) (s)

C01 08 17.0 5110 3.2 5110 600 5820

10 18.3 420 2.4 420 670 690

13 18.0 2940 3.0 2940 1530 2840

23 17.9 320 2.7 320 850 660

C02 05 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

06 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

07 13.4 320 6.3 330 1030 1740

C03 02 16.5 280 4.4 280 460 1680

03 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

04 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

C04 09 11.0 340 N.A. N.A. 1200 350

14 9.6 310 12.0 310 560 520

C05 11 17.3 590 2.8 620 2200 530

C06 25 1.78 300 17.0 310 22400 280

C07 17 12.0 300 7.6 300 5800 310

C08 18 13.2 750 5.8 750 900 780

C09 16 14.1 620 6.0 630 610 620

CIO 19 18.1 570 2.3 590 3000 580

Cll 12 6.4 1140 16.9 1140 3300 1140

C12 15 17.9 1710 2.6 1730 800 2080

C13 20 17.2 1400 1.73 970 810 1180

C14 21 17.3 1630 1.52 1630 1020 1570

C15 22 18.5 330 2.0 330 1040 320

C16 24 18.9 670 1.85 650 1070 940

N.A. - Not Available

30
s ,5 i— m

in no

r^- o m \o O [^ H N

n en n o

o in o oo

o .-h o CN

vo o

oo o\

.-i o

n w o n in m vo r-~ (N rn <t CT> ^3" (U OHHN o o o o o o O .-{ H

31
Table 11. Times to exceed critical gas concentrations

Specimen Test

C01 08

10

13

23

C02 05

06

07

C03 02

03

04

C04 09

14

C05 11

C06 25

C07 17

C08 18

C09 16

CIO 19

Cll 12

C12 15

C13 20

C14 21

C15 22

C16 24

N.A. - Not Available

2 = 14% C02

= 8%

Time

COHb = 25%

Time Time

(s) (s) (s)

N.A. N.A. N.A

N.A. N.A. N.A

310 — —

N.A. N.A. N.A

N.A. N.A. N.A

310 N.A.

290 290 —

170 210 340

270

740

2590

1000 1010

2690

32
Table 12. Tenabillty groups

Tenability Criteria—Time to Flashover Criterion Reach

Gas

Critical Values

Time to Reach Radiant Smoke

Group Specimen Type Full Involvement Concentration Heat Flux Obscuration

(s) (s) (s) (s)

A C01 Traditional

C12 Traditional — — — —

B C13 Traditional — 650

C16 Traditional — — — 490

C15 Traditional — — — 280

| C03 Traditional — — — 215

I C05 Bean Bag — — — 210

C02 Traditional — In. A. — 150

C C14 Traditional 2690

CIO Modern — 2590 — 480

Cll Foam Block — 1000 950 940

C08 Modern — 740 720 140

C09 Modern — — 550 470

C07 Modern — 270 250 120

C04 Traditional — 290 230 210

D C06 Foam Block 280 170 110 100

N.A. - Not Available

33
05,10,11O*

06,07,

08,09

.23,24

N

.43,44

52,53

48,49,

50,51

E

3.40

01,02,03,04

O A

CHAIR

PLATFORM

12,13,14,15,

<J>I6,I7, 18,19, 20,21,22

3.50

25,30,31 26,27,

0*28,29 37,38 35,36

116,117 39,40,

41,42

69

on

68

OD

112,113

114,115

54,55,

56,57

58, 59,60,

I20.I2L 6 I, 62,63,

122 "^•64,65,66,

67

0.91 w

67,€B-

( j45.46.47

110,111

SYMBOLS

+ LOAD CELL • THERMOCOUPLE-GAS

O THERMOCOUPLE-SURFACE

HEAT FLUX METER

-G- GAS PROBE

ALL DIMENSIONS IN METERS

Figure 1. Burn room plan view

34
93

10,11, _52,53

W30,

-131,68 ^37,38 kOO o ii^iisP

116, 117

~~?|2I

C»20

A09,5I ^ -29 ^f —36,57

110,111 >^ CD67

42 • c

c

,19

1

C)

43,44 9IH^-

, n, -©-120,121,122

vS58

03P4 104^59 < ,18,46

^08,50

#

64

,03 t§£ ^35,56 •V7

2. 13 92«^- ^65 ^ 2.^ 4

o

16

^07, 4 9

102^61

•27 ^ 34,55 •

40

o

15 101^62

()23,24 1 ^01, 02

C> I4,45

#66

#06,48 • 26

I00^6 3

033,54 •

39

o

13 t

i t <* ^^25,69 32 l r ,,'2,0.15

\J

ii? 1 n

kJ v.'47 A

ALL DIMENSIONS IN METERS

SYMBOLS • THERMOCOUPLE-GAS

O THERMOCOUPLE- SURFACE

HEAT FLUX METER

V VELOCITY PROBE

^m SMOKE METER LIGHT PATH

© GAS PROBE

Figure 2. Burn room elevation

35
oUH

fdOmo

3=(D •H>n

(DU

•H

fa

36
OuU

-Ho

•H>

-H

37
noUU

•Ho

CD H>

IT)

CDUPH

38
oUU

•Hu

M-lo

CD -H>

CD

•H

39
IT) OUu

•HooH>u

tn H

40
oUU

•Ho

4-1o

•H>

00

<D

5-1

•H

fa

41
r-oUU

•H

rd X!Omo

-H>

CDu

•H

42
COoUUH

Xio

iwo

CD H>

CDU

•H

En

43
OUU

-Humo

-H>

CDU

•H

fa

44
uuH

sxomo

CD H>

CM

5-1

45
ou

•Hoo

(1) H>n

-h

fa

46
Hu

5-1 •H

rdUo

CD H>

^r

5-1

•H

47
en

.HU

5-1 •H

fO XiO

4-4O

3=CD

-rH >m

0)u

•H

48
uu

•Ha

£1uO

Q) -H>

<D

0)nH

p4

49
inUu

-H

XiooH>

5-1

tn H

fa

50
uH

fd Aoo

•H>

CO

0)U

•H

51
800

S* 600

400

CHAIR C01TEST 10 TEST 23

1 1 1 I I , 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Isl

0016

0012

0006

0.004

"i 1 1

1

CHAIR C01 TEST 10

Flux TEST 23Mass loss

II Flux

""''" '-<JXrtpc \a*JL--..~.

v\

J

J L J L

102

10'

E

10°

io-i 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Isl

_ 6

JE

t—

ujo

t= 3

n r

CHAIR C01TEST 10 TEST 23

±

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

32

24

16

CHAIR C01 TEST 10

2

TEST 23

2 -—-C02 CO2 CO CO

U:>^^~ :t

3.2

2.4

1.6 !lo

u

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 19. Results for chair C01, standard ignition

52
800 III!

-

CHAIR C01 - ILol UO oo 600

TEST 13 -

UJ

ee. =>t—

«ioc

UJ

a.

S.UJ

t— 400 -

200

i

' ii IV- V

I I - I I

0.016 -

0.012 -

0008

0.004

1 1 CHAIR C01 _ TEST 08

!

:

Flux

. TEST 13Mass loss

i

I!

I]

lit I y

j

\ i

\ !

i

i

\ lit

V I

.

10 2

-10'

E

10°

101 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

6 - CHAIR C01TEST 08 TEST 13

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

32

24

®l 16

8 -

"i 1 1 r

CHAIR C01 TEST 08 TEST 13 02 2 C02 CO2 CO

f\ ^_-jLx^^j

3.2

2.4

1.6 £1ou

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

Figure 20. Results for chair C01, cigarette ignition

53
800

1 1 1 ! 1

CHAIR C02

TEST 05

« 600 _ _

oc

<t

oc

UJ

o_

uj 400

1— -

200 - aIVa^

l 1 1 i i 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

0016

0.012

0008

0004

~i 1 1 r

CMAIR C02

TEST 05Mass loss

Flux

_L

10 2

10 1

E

10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Isl

F 3 -

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (si

Figure 21. Results for chair C02, standard ventilation

54
" 600 -

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (Si

016 -

0012

0008

0004

CMAIR C02

TEST 06Mass loss Flux

10 2

10'

E

10"

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

10'

7 -

! I 1 1 1

_ 6 CHAIR C02

TEST 06

JE—2 5 — - o

lw

it. LUo° 4 - z

o-o2

= 3 - XLU

LU

aco

* 2 _ —

C/> '

1

A J 1 4- 1- 1 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s|

Figure 22. Results for chair C02, window ventilation

55
800 -

P 600

0£

a. 400

i r i r

CHAIR C02

TEST 07

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

0.016

0.012

0.008

0.004

i 1 1 r

CHAIR C02

TEST 07Mass loss

Flux

10 2

101

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

7 -

o

i r

CHAIR C02

TEST 07

£ -+~ I 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is!

32

24 -

8 -

CHAIR C02

TEST 07

2 C0 2 CO

A—r

r r-

-2.4

3.2

1.6 2i

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 23. Results for chair C02, part-open door

56
800 -

" 600

UJ

a.=>—

<t

QC

UJ

CL1 400

i

1 1 r

CHAIR C03

TEST 02 -—TEST 04

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (s)

0.016 -

0.012

u> 0008

0.004 -

CHAIR C03

TEST 02Mass loss Flux TEST 04

Flux

10 2

101

E

- 10°

io-i 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

CHAIR C03

TEST 02 TEST 04

1 v 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

32

24

il 16

CHAIR C03

TEST 02

2 C02 CO

\ A

3.2

2.4

—1 1.6 £

oo

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 24. Results for chair C03, standard ignition

57
800

« 600

400

1 r i r

CHAIR C03

TEST 03

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

0.016

0.012

0008

0004

"i

1 1 1 r

CHAIR C03

TEST 03Mass loss

Flux

10 2

10 1

E

- 10°

10-1 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

Figure 25. Results for chair C03 , wastebasket ignition

58
1 r "i r

800

P 600 -

CHAIR C04

TEST 09 TEST 14

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

0.016 -

0.012

008 -

004 -

I'l Peak 0.076

i i i .

j at 340 s

j

•

I

CHAIR C04

i TEST 09 - . Flux

- .

TEST 14Mass loss

Flux 9 1

A

- P1

1

-

! m 1

:| 'II »- -.1. I Vv —

V

;

fi , , 1 1 1

102

-10'

E

- 10°

101 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

7 -

CHAIR C04

TEST 09 TEST 14

400 800 1200 16G0 2000 2400

TIME Is]

32

24

i r

CHAIR C04

TEST 09 TEST 14 02 02 CO C02 CO

3.2

2.4

-11.6 £.o

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

Figure 26. Results for chair C04

59
" 600

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

0.016

0.012

0008

004

"i 1 1 r

CHAIR C05

TEST 11 Mass loss Flux

_L

102

10 1

E

- 10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

5 -

1 -j

! I

[I

I

III

CHAIR C05

TEST 11

V-^ i i

!l 16

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME |s] 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 27. Results for chair C05

60
800

I I l I i

\ CHAIR C06

- \ TEST 25 -

" 600 - -

UJ

Be31—1be

UJ| 400

:

-

200 v -

i i i . i I 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

0.016 -

0.012

0008

0004

-1

1 1 1 r

Peak=0.151

at 150 s

CHAIR C06

TEST 25Mass loss

Flux

U 1 J I I L

-10'

10 2

E

10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

7 "Till 1

6 CHAIR C06

JE

t—S 5

TEST 25

u_

LL. UJo

o 1 -

EXTINCT CO -

1

-

UJ

at: o

^ 2

oo

1

I ^-~k~_ I I i 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

32

24

£ 16

n r i r

CHAIR C06

TEST 25

02C0 2 CO

J L

3.2

2.4

1.6 £

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

Figure 28. Results for chair C06

61
P 600 -

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

0.016 -

on -X 0.012

UJ

I—<QC00

ooo

oo 0.008

00

0.004 -

If

i -1

1 1 -i Peak=0.087

at 360 s

"

CHAIR C07

TEST 17

1

Flux

La

- \f\

h \

-

- i

i

/

1

1 i i i i

102

-w

: 10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

7

1 1 1 1 1

_ 6 — _

JE CHAIR C07

EXTINCTION

COEFFICIENT

co

J>

on TEST 17

-

UJ

<=> ^ 2

oo

1

Vjj

-

J- i i S i

32

24

!l 16 oo

i

1 1 r

CHAIR C07 TEST 17

2 C02 CO

// I ^"f=^4

3.2

2.4

1.6

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME |s) 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME |s)

Figure 29. Results for chair C07

62
800

! 1 1 1

CHAIR C08

i

TEST 18

-

P 600 _ -

UJ

ccrs

i—<cc

UJ

Q.2 400

i— \

-

200 "

/ \ J ^v

-

I 1 1

I

0)6

0.012

0008

0.004

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

CHAIR C08 TEST 18Mass loss

10 2

E

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

32

24 -

t 16-

8 -

1 i i i

CHAIR C08

1

-

TEST 1802C0 2 CO -

-.-ir

-

3.2

- 2.4

- 1.6 ^

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME |s]

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME |s]

Figure 30. Results for chair COI

63
800

i i i i

CHAIR C09

1

TEST 16

-

" 600 - -

UJ

OS=D

I—

«t

ceUJ

a.5 400

I \

-

200 Nv -

I I I I 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si


 GOo

0.016

0.012

0.008

0.004 - ,'

"i

1 1 r

CHAIR C09

TEST 16Mass loss Flux

qlO 2

:10'

10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

E 3 -

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

32

24

°1 16

8

"i r i r

CHAIR C09

TEST 16

2 C02 CO

•*•— -I—- 1 1

3.2

2.4

1.6

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

Figure 31. Results for chair C09

64
« 600 -

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

0.016

0.012

0008

0.004

T ~r

CHAIR C10 TEST 19Mass loss

Flux

102

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME is.

32

24

16

8 -

CHAIR CIO TEST 1902C02 CO

/^ —^ 1 T——*—g±d d

3.2

2.4

1.6 £

oo

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME si 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (si

Figure 32. Results for chair CIO

65
800

i i I

i

CHAIR C11 TEST 12

i

/]

-

" 600 -

UJ

OE=3

1—

<t

oeUJ

-

a.uj 400

i— I -

200 -

I

l l I l 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [s]

0.016

0.012

0008

004 -

"i 1

1 r~

CHAIR C11 TEST 12Mass loss

Flux

A

q10 2

10'

E

10°

n< • 1 ' » IU u 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

101

32

24 -

•1 16-

1 1 1 1 1 CHAIR C11 TEST 1202C02 CO -

' 'J

\ V

K.--1, 1

3.2

- 2.4

1.6 £

oo

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is] 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 33. Results for chair Cll

66
800

i i i i i

CHAIR C12 TEST 15 " 600 -

UJOE

=3

>—

<t

DCUJ

a.2 400

1

1

'

i

200 \

I l 1 I i

0.016 -

0.012 -

oo 0.008

00

0.004 -

1 1 1 ! 1

".

CHAIR C12 TEST 15

Flux

:

- A / K

1

' / \ / f:

- / \r \ -T

1 J \/*S Iff * /ill IJ

1 1

"

10 2

-10'

E

10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (S)

7 -

CHAIR C12 TEST 15

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME (si

32

24

£. 16

-11

CHAIR C12 TEST 15

2 C02 CO

z=^=n=ni=fr±ii r^-—

r

3.2

2.4

1.6 £

oo

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Isl

Figure 34. Results for chair C12

67
800

I i l i

CHAIR C13

i

TEST 20 -

« 600 - -

UJ

ac=>

I—

<x

ce

UJ

a.S 400

i—

-

-

200 -

I l 1 I i

0.016

0.012

0008

0004

1 r "i r

CHAIR C13 TEST 20Mass loss

Flux

400 BOO 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

102

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

i 1

1 r

CHAIR C13 TEST 20

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

32

24

51 16

CHAIR C13 TEST 20

2 C02 CO

3.2

2.4

1.6 2.oo

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

Figure 35. Results for chair C13

68
800

i i i i

CHAIR C14

i

TEST 21 -

« 600 -

UJcc

t—

«sacUJ

Q.E 400

1— -

200 -

I l I I I 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

1 r i i 1

0.016 CHAIR C14 TEST 21

:

•

Flux

inan

JC 0.012 A

-

UJ

CC

:

IS) o—J

oo

«tS

0.008 /v / IA

•

0004

If N fi \ \

/ . 1 1 I I

,10 2

-10'

E5

- 10°

10' 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

32

24

£ 16

CM Ou

—i r

CHAIR C14 TEST 2102C02 CO

3.2

2.4

1.6 ^

o

0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Isl

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 36. Results for chair C14

69
800

" 600

400

T r

CHAIR C15 TEST 22

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME [si

0016

0012

0008

0004

—I

1 r

CMAIR C15 TEST 22Mass loss

Flux

J L J_

t 10'

_L

I0 2

- 10°

10 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME ]s|

E 3

"I r

CHAIR C15 TEST 22

J L 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

32

24

16

-i r

CHAIR C15 TEST 22

2 C0 2 CO

J^-v——•1 L

3.2

24

1.6 51

08

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 37. Results for chair C15

70
800 -

" 600

400

-i r

CHAIR C16 TEST 24

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is)

0.016 -

0012

0008

0004

CHAIR C16 TEST 24Mass loss Flux

102

10'

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

i r

_ 6 -

E

CHAIR C16 TEST 24

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

ii

24 -

l 1 1 1 1

CHAIR C16 TEST 24

2 C0 2 CO

-

- E 16 _ _ O

O

8

-H- ~T^r-^^-r

-

3.2

-2.4

1.6 »lo

-0.8

400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400

TIME Is]

Figure 38. Results for chair C16

71

APPENDIX

LOG OF OBSERVATIONS

Test 02

Chair C03

TIME(S)

60

120

160

170

180

215

230

250

350

360

380

480

600

700

960

1030

1500

2000

Ignition of newspaper

Approximate time of chair ignition

Flames about 0.3m above top of chair

Inside back of chair burning fully and vigorously

Smoke production rapid

Flames about 0.7m above top of chair

Entire seat area forms base of flame column

Molten flaming drops start falling from chair arms Gradual flame spread down on sides and front peak flame height

about lm above top

Increasing melting and burning on floor

Sides burn through to the outside; minimal visibility

Flame height decreases

Pool underneath now continuous, but fire still strongest on

top of seat Chair frame clearly visible, most padding has burned away

Flames now not much higher than top of chair

Only material adhering to frame itself is still burning

Chair frame begins to collapse

Minor burning of debris

Test terminated

Test 03

Chair C03

TIME(S)

30

90

150

180

265

300

330

360

390

420

510

590

780

990

1230

1680

1920

Wastebasket trash ignited

Chair side ignites

Dripping starts from chair

Flames decrease after having reached almost to the top of the

chair

Front of arm gets involved

Fire spreading over seat cushion

Most of seat cushion burning; flames about 0.2m above chair top

Increased smoke production

Flames about lm above top, vigorous burning, increased smoke

observation

All sides burning and dripping but not much floor pool burning;

flames nearly to ceiling

Sides heavily burning , arms burning out of fuel

Marked floor pool burning begins

Burning decreasing

Limited burning, flames less than 0.5m high

Frame clearly visible

Chair collapses

Limited flaming of debris on the floor

Test terminated

A-l
Test 04

Chair C03

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

120 Flaming established on seat cushion

140 Vigorous burning at cushion

160 Flames about 0.4m above chair top

195 Cushion, inside sides and back all burning vigorously

240 Significant smoke developed, flames more than lm above

chair top

280 Front of seat cushion burning

300 Burning drops falling front and back

355 Upholstery exfoliating in front

370 Flame spread on outside of arms

420 Pool fire begins to envelop chair

460 Arms burn through

750 Most filling material burned away except at seat cushion

1110 Chair back falls off

1170 Further collapse

1850 End of test

Test 05

Chair C02

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

100 Seat area becomes ignited

118 Flames about lm above chair top

130 All inside surfaces burning vigorously

160 Minor melting from chair back

185 Spread to arms and melting, dripping from arm outside

205 Spread down front of seat, layers exfoliating and dropping,

220 Flame volume encompasses chair, all horizontal surfaces fully

involved

235 Pool burning at front edge of seat

290 Intense pool burning under whole bottom

300 Chair enveloped in flames on all its sides; flames start at floor pool and are over 2m high

400 Sides of chair burning less

460 Arms burned through

550 Flames now only about 0.2m above top

690 Most of covering, filling materials burned away

990 Chair falls over 1820 Test terminated; some debris still burning

A2
Test 06

Chair C02

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

80 Flames about 0.2m above chair

105 Inside back burning vigorously

125 Flame spread covers seat 135 Dripping starts at back

165 Dripping from all sides

180 Heavy smoke obscuration; only flames are visible

215 Pool burning at front of chair; sides not yet involved in flame

280 Flames spreading on sides

300 Pool flames merge with general burning

570 Chair largely burned through

1000 Chair begins to collapse

1800 Only limited debris flaming

2700 Test terminated

Test 07 Chair C02

TIME(S)

50

75 105

120

130

150

160

195

240

270

380

550

2700

Newspaper ignited

Burning of seat begins

Flames about 0.6m above chair top

Inside back fully involved

Drippings start from arms and back

Seat fully involved in flame

Dripping from all sides

Vigorous burning of entire inside area; smoke obscures top

part of flames

Pool burning at front of chair, due to fall-off of large piece

Very limited visibility

Pool burning envelops chair from all sides

Arms burned through

Pool fire getting smaller, mainly in back

Test terminated

Test 08

Chair C01

TIME(S)

20

60

65

4980

5100

5160

5280

5700

6200

6600

Ignited cigarette placed in crevice

Light smoke

Heavy white smoke in upper 2/3 of room

Rapid smoldering of seat cushion

Flaming ignition of seat Flames above top of chair and some molten drop burning on floor

Pool fire burning on floor

Significant black smoke obscuration, peak of burning has passed

Only very limited flaming

Chair falls over

Test terminated

A3
Test 09

Chair C04

TIME(S)

70

120

125

140

180

210

220

240

280

290

293

325

390

440

745

1800

Newspaper ignited

Burning on inside back established

Flames cover all of inside back

Pool burning begins below the back

Large burning pieces exfoliating at the back

Heavy smoke

Flame spread reaches front of seat cushion

All exposed horizontal surfaces fully involved

Flame spread on sides, coming from rear Arms burned through

Pool fire under entire chair

Chair surrounded in flames on sides and back

Entire chair totally involved

Burning decreasing

Most of chair is burned out

Chair falls over

Test terminated; only minor debris still burning

Test 10

Chair C01

TIME(S)

75 160

390

420

450

480

545

660

700

770

910

1030

1320

1347

1365

1800

Newspaper ignited

Fire established on seat Inside back covered with flame

Dripping begins at front of seat

Slight burning at outside back

Dripping begins in the back

Seat cushion beginning to be consumed; outside of chair

mostly intact

Flame spreads around from outside back to involve outside arms Rapid melting burning drops but no major pool fire

Back flaming vigorously, sides and cushion burning slowly

Limited pool burning under chair, seat now flaming vigorously

Flames getting shorter

Most of chair, except seat, burned through

Chair begins to collapse

Further collapse

Flaming increases around seat area

Test terminated; only limited debris burning

A4
Test 11

Chair C05

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited (placed on the floor adjacent to chair)

32 Chair ignites

60 Flames at top of chair

89 Filling falls out, chair collapses, some filling falls outside

of platform

150 Flames still only slightly above top of chair

210 Burning more vigorous

240 Unignited side of chair pyrolizing heavily

300 Heavier smoke

315 All of chair upper surfaces heavily involved in fire

360 Visibility very poor

410 Fire spreads to spilled filling

420 Almost negligible visibility

480 View obscured due to smoke in lower half of corridor

695 Smoke in lower half clears up

1020 Mostly debris; flames less than 0.3m high

1500 Test terminated

Test 12

Chair Cll

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited (placed on floor against side of chair)

270 Flames to top of chair

370 Side burning vigorously

420 Flame spread starts across seat; flames about 1.2m high

450 Heavy smoke obscuration

510 Flame now involves whole side and seat; top of flame hidden in

black smoke

660 Vigorous burning, almost no visibility

690 Visibility slightly increased in lower part

735 Burning less vigorously

1200 Fire almost out 2020 Test terminated

Test 13

Chair C01

TIME(S)

Cigarette ignition

780 Light smoke

2700 Heavy smoke

2820 Open flaming starts

2910 Heavy smoke, seat fully involved

3060 Smoke and flaming dies down

3300 Pool fire under chair, back all burned through

3600 Limited flaming only

4080 Chair now collapses

4800 Fire out; test terminated

A5
Test 14

Chair C04

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

15 Flames to the top of chair

80 Flames about 0.6m above chair top

95 Dripping starts

120 Steady dripping at back

160 Pool fire at back

230 Major flaming above chair

255 Flames break out of side arms

280 Pool fire merges with top fire

308 Chair frame now visible

360 Peak burning is over

400 Flames below top of chair now

450 Only limited flaming

1360 Chair fully collapsed

1800 Fire essentially out; test terminated

Test 15

Chair C12

TIME(S )

14

85

100

200

280

370

1070

1160

1200

1230

1310

1560

1640

1680

1860

2090

2400

2700

Newspaper ignited

Flame to top of chair

Cushion involved

Back involved

Back burning vigorously

Flame height decreasing slightly, but flame spread across

seat Back flaming less

Flaming on seat increases; flaming subsides

Some flame spread down front of cushion

Melting and dripping from the back

Side arms beginning to burn through

Flaming subsiding

Drippings in back

Pool burning starts up

Chair now mostly engulfed in flames

Flaming subsiding, chair largely consumed

Chair begins to collapse

Limited flaming at arms and under chair

Fire almost out; test terminated

A6
Test 16

Chair C09

TIME(S)

Newpaper ignited

120 Flames spreading on seat cushion

225 Flame spread reaches front of cushion

250 Seat surface now burning vigorously

470 Some melting, burning underneath

570 Flame spreading down the side

590 Pool fire established underneath

605 Chair begins to collapse

1320 Fire dying down somewhat

1870 Test terminated, fire basically out

Test 17 Chair C07

TIME(S)

40

75 170

180

220

246

280

300

450

500

700

1200

Newspaper ignited

Flames to top of chair

Vigorous burning of back

Entire seat cushion involved

All exposed inside surfaces burning

Melting, dripping at the rear Large burning chunk of arm falls off

Almost complete obscuration

Intermittent complete obscuration

Slight regain of visibility

Only base and puddle burning; still quite smoky

Smoke clearing

Small pool fire remaining in one corner, test terminated

Test 18

Chair C08

TIME(S)

40

60

220

365

390

440

475

540

575

650

720

2100

2580

3000

Newspaper ignited

Flames to top of chair

Black smoke from chair back

Flame spread finally covers cushion and back completely

Dripping resumes Large flow of burning liquid at rear Outside structural frame has almost all melted away at rear

Side arm melting and dripping

Flaming decreasing; most of foam burned away

Pool fire building up Chair remainder collapsing

Only general pool burning

Pool burning diminishes

Only small localized flames remain

Test terminated

A7
Test 19

Chair CIO

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

140 Flames almost out without igniting upholstery

305 Flames appear , smoke increases

410 Heavy grey smoke from small burning region

440 One side arm burning consistently

485 Seat back fully involved

630 Vigorous burning from all inside surfaces

840 Spread begins down outside of arms

900 Minor dripping from side arm

956 Seat back peels off and falls down

960 Chair collapsed into canted position

1120 Fire substantially dying down

1570 Some charred structure pieces fall off

1765 Further collapse, results in a burst of flaming

1870 Flaming dying down again

2400 Only debris still flaming

3030 Test terminated

Test 20

Chair C13

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

180 Flames to top of chair

480 Flames about lm above top of chair

660 Seat back burning vigorously, melting, dripping begins

720 Seat and back fully involved

1080 Side arms beginning to burn through

1140 Seat cushion burning through in front

1200 Pool fire burning underneath chair

1260 Flaming up one side

1320 Pool fire going out

1370 Arms fully burned through, flame heights decreasing

3000 Debris smoldering slightly

3630 Test terminated

A1
Test 21

Chair C14

TIME.(S)

Newspaper ignited

25 Flames to top of chair

150 Flame spread to front of seat cushion; back not burning much

180 Melting, dripping starts in front

290 Chair front all involved, but short flames

350 Small pool fire under chair

360 Flaming from all sides of chair, but very short flames

480 Main flaming is in pool, at dripping edges and at top of chair

630 Flaming greatly increases at top of chair; other burning almost

subsides

1200 Flame height decreasing somewhat, but more extensive cushion

flaming

1800 Flames dying down, chair almost burned through

2100 Only small flamelets remain

2400 End of flaming; a largish charred mass still remains

2800 Test terminated

Test 22 Chair C15

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

65 Flames to top of chair

220 Back fully involved; cushion not flaming much

360 Flame spread across cushion reaches front

405 Some melting, dripping in rear

490 Large burning pieces falling in rear

530 Flame spread on side arms progressing towards the front

600 Side arms mostly engulfed in flame

720 Flame height decreasing somewhat

1020 Upper half of chair mostly burned away

1440 Parts of chair collapsed

1740 Now mostly burning rubble

2340 Small flames on rubble

A9
Test 23

Chair C01

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

60 Flames at top of chair

65 Heavy pyrolyzing from side arm

120 Back almost fully involved

270 Flame spread to front of cushion

330 Melting, dripping from seat cushion front

460 Thin flames spreading down outside of side arms

510 Melting, dripping in rear

560 Side arms burning through

600 Flames now quite short, mostly on seat and at drippings

830 Increased burning of seat cushion

1020 Slight increase in side arm burning

1380 Chair begins to collapse

2040 Only bottom of frame remains

2400 Limited debris flaming

2700 Test terminated

Test 24

Chair C16

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

60 Flames to top of chair

420 Flame spread to front of cushion, back not yet involved

540 Back and seat now fully involved

660 Melting, dripping at rear

690 Flame spread down front of cushion

840 Flame spread over side arms

1140 Most surfaces now charred

1320 Increased flaming of seat cushion

1800 Flaming dying down; back burned off

2800 Limited flaming of the debris (which is substantial)

Test terminated

A- 10
Test 25

Chair C06

TIME(S)

Newspaper ignited

30 Flames about 0.8m above seat

60 Back fully involved

120 Smoke layer approx. 0.7m above chair top

140 Flame spread over all exposed horizontal surface

150 Smoke layer down flush with the top of the chair

155 Melting, dripping, flaming on all sides

198 Loss of visibility

366 Regain of some visibility

420 Short pile of material on floor burning

480 Smoke largely cleared; short flames, approx. lm high

570 Flames only about 0.5m high

960 Test terminated

A-ll
NBS-114A (REV. 9-78)

U.S. DEPT. OF COMM. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO. NBS Tech Note 1103

2.Sev>t ACftss&lsn No. J. ft«cjp,ent's Accession No.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

FULL-SCALE BURNING BEHAVIOR OF UPHOLSTERED CHAIRS

5. Publication Date August 1979

$. Perform)ag Qrgani;zatiot» ^ode

7. AUTHOR(S) 8. Performing Organ. Report No. Vytenis Babrauskas

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, DC 20234

l& !»!»fS<3/1^/W<HK Ositt Nft.

11. Contract/Grant No.

12. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS fSfreet, City, state, ZIP) Sponsored in part by:

Veterans Administration

Department of Defense

Consumer Product Safety Commission

13. Type of Report & Period Covered

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

| | Document describes a computer program; SF-185, Fl PS Software Summary, is attached.

16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or Jess factual summary of moat significant information. If document includes a significant bibliography or

literature survey, mention it here.)

A test program was conducted to determine the fire

behavior of a variety of upholstered chairs subjected to

a flaming ignition. Major variables were materials and

construction of chairs, room ventilation, and type of

ignition sources. A total of 16 types of traditional

and modern design chairs were tested in a full-scale,

otherwise unfurnished room. A folded up newspaper at

the seat area was used as the standard ignition source. Room tenability criteria were based on smoke, concentrations of gaseous combustion products, and heat flux.

One or more tenability criteria were exceeded for 14

chairs, in times ranging from 100 sec to 650 sec; two

chairs burned without exceeding any of the tenability

criteria. A review is included of previous upholstered

furniture experiments using flaming ignition sources

and of existing or proposed small-scale standard tests.

17. KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name;

separated by semicolons) Chairs; compartment fires; f lammability; fire tests;

furnishings; upholstered furniture.

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