2025 Material Flammability Research Highlights

Members of the Material Flammability Characterization Project recently presented or co-authored a series papers at the 16th International Conference and Exhibition on fire science and engineering (Interflam 2025, UK), the Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials conference (FRPM25, Spain) and the US National Combustion Meeting (Boston, MA).

These talks describe new experimental tools and analytical techniques that support both the Material Flammability Characterization and Functional Barriers for Low-Flammability Products projects. These talks highlighted a range of topics including:

1. ASTM E3367: Conception and Development of a New Standard Test based on Cone Calorimetry
2. Evaluating Variability in the Fire Behavior of multiple version of commercially available PMMA and Identifying a Replacement MaCFP-PMMA
3. Measurement of the Smoldering and Flaming Heats of Combustion of Vegetative Fuels
4. Measurement of the average molecular formula of gaseous pyrolyzates and their impact on CFD simulations of wall, flame structure and heat feedback
5. Uncertainty quantification and propagation of pyrolysis kinetics parameters used in fire models
6. Intermediate Scale Flame Spread Apparatus for Fire Model Validation

Members of the Material Flammability Characterization Team also won the 2025 USNMC Image Competition (prize for artistic merit) for their submission, “Flame structure and soot production of surrogate vegetative fuels burning in the vertical configuration."

Credit: I.T. Leventon, K. De Lannoye, A. Tripi, R. Greene, S. Khalil/NIST

Credit: NIST

Credit: NIST

Credit: NIST

Credit: NIST

Credit: NIST