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Mechanistic study of the combustion behaviour of polymeric materials in bench‐scale tests. I. Comparison between cone calorimeter and traditional tests
Author(s) -
Costa L.,
Caminio G.,
Bertelli G.,
Borsini G.
Publication year - 1995
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.810190306
Subject(s) - cone calorimeter , calorimeter (particle physics) , fire retardant , combustion , materials science , melamine , composite material , char , chemistry , detector , engineering , organic chemistry , electrical engineering
The behaviour of three typical thermoplastic polymers—polypropylene (PP), polyamide 6 (PA‐6), ABS and PP mixed with inert talc or fire retardant magnesium hydroxide or melamine—was assessed in the Cone Calorimeter and in traditional widely used tests. It is seen that the evaluation of the relative fire hazard of the materials, based on simple parameters, can be very different depending on the test used, particularly in the presence of additives. From this point of view, the Cone Calorimeter introduces an additional evaluation which might be as arbitrary as that obtained with any other test. For example, melamine, which is currently used as a fire retardant in several polymers, may be considered as a fire‐hazardous additive in PP burned in the Cone Calorimeter if only the maximum of rate of heat release is considered. The data discussed here indicate that the use of the Cone Calorimeter for simple evaluation of materials requires further investigation. It is hown that the Cone Calorimeter is a very promising tool for mechanistic studies on combustion and fire retardance, when its potential in terms of quantitative description of the whole combustion is fully used.