Premium
An experimental setup for observation of smoldering‐to‐flaming transition on flexible foam/fabric assemblies
Author(s) -
Stoliarov Stanislav I.,
Zeller Olga,
Morgan Alexander B.,
Levchik Sergei
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
fire and materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-1018
pISSN - 0308-0501
DOI - 10.1002/fam.2464
Subject(s) - combustion , ignition system , polyurethane , fire retardant , materials science , pyrolysis , flammable liquid , composite material , flammability , waste management , flame spread , forensic engineering , decomposition , combustibility , chemistry , engineering , organic chemistry , aerospace engineering
Summary Fires that involve upholstered furniture frequently begin as a smoldering combustion and, with time, transition to a flaming combustion, which sharply increases the level of hazard. Therefore, understanding how the compositions of the primary flammable components of the furniture, ie, flexible foam and upholstery fabric, affect this transition is important for fire safety considerations. In the current study, an experiment was designed to observe this transition using a sample consisting of 30 × 15 × 6 cm 3 rectangular foam block covered with 30 × 15 cm 2 piece of fabric. For a representative system of 1.8 lb/ft 3 (29 kg/m 3 ) flexible polyurethane foam and 11 oz (0.37 kg/m 2 ) cotton fabric, 0.69 transition probability was measured. This probability decreased by a factor of 4 when a small amount of phosphorus‐based flame retardant, Fyrol® HF‐9, was added to the foam. The transition to flaming was speculated to be associated with the formation of adjacent pyrolysis and smoldering regions within the foam. The pyrolysis region, dominated by anaerobic decomposition, provided gaseous fuel, the ignition of which resulted in the transition. The smoldering region, dominated by oxidation reactions at the solid‐gas interface, generated the heat necessary to maintain the pyrolysis process and ignite the gaseous fuel.