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Fire Barriers in Full-Scale Chair Mock-ups

Research Overview

The effectiveness and the failure mechanism of fire barriers in residential upholstered furniture were investigated by full-scale flaming tests on upholstered chair mock-ups. Six commercial fire barriers were tested in this study. In the fire barriers, the presence of elements that are typically used in fire retardants were screened by several analytical methodologies; none of the targeted fire retardants were found by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. For each fire barrier, triplicate flammability tests were run on chair mock-ups where polyurethane foam and polyester fiber fill were used as the padding materials, and each chair component was fully wrapped with the fire barrier of choice and a polypropylene cover fabric. The ignition source was an 18 kW square propane burner, impinging on the top surface of the seat cushion for 80 s. Results showed all six fire barriers reduced the peak heat release rate (as much as 64 %) and delayed its occurrence (up to 19 min) as compared to the control chair mock-ups. The heat release rate remained at a relatively low plateau level until liquid products (generated by either melting or pyrolysis of the padding material) percolated through the fire barrier at the bottom of the seat cushion and ignited, while the fire barrier was presumably intact. The flaming liquid products dripped and quickly formed a pool fire under the chair and the peak heat release rate occurred shortly thereafter. Ultimately, the ignition of the percolating liquid products at the bottom of the seat cushion was identified as the mechanism triggering the failure of the fire barrier.

Experiment Name Plot of Heat Release Rate Ignition Photo Date/Time Specimen Sort descending Fuel Type Test Duration (min) Total Heat Released (MJ) Peak HRR (kW)
Propane Burner Check
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
gas tube burner Propane
2.98
3.22
24.3
B4-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
19.65
310
2,084
C0-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
14.60
315
2,834
B6-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
41.07
301
1,080
B5-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
22.95
327
1,547
B3-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
22.33
339
657
B2-1
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
20.38
314
2,320
B1-2
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
37.68
313
1,063
C0-2
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
16.17
325
2,697
Control-Smoldering
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
40.28
below detection limit
9.4
C0-3
Plot of Fire Heat Release Rate with event markers. Uncertainty bar shown at peak value.
Ignition
upholstered chair mockup Polyurethane Foam
19.43
321
2,517

Bryant, R. and Bundy, M. The NIST 20 MW Calorimetry Measurement System for Large-Fire Research, Technical Note (NIST TN) 2077, 2019
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2077

NIST Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)
https://doi.org/10.18434/mds2-2314

Last Updated July 14, 2021