Fire Performance of Selected Residential Floor Constructions Under Room Burnout Conditions. Interim Report.

Published

December 1, 1980

Author(s)

Jin B. Fang

Abstract

A series of seven large-scale room burnout fire tests was conducted with a set of selected residential floor-ceiling assemblies to provide data on the performance of the assemblies; these will be compared with the results in future tests on the same constructions in a fire endurance furnace. Four wood-frame and three light gage steel-frame, load-bearing assemblies, each measuring 3.7 x 3.7 m in size, were exposed from the underside to a fire environment produced from the burning of typical furniture and interior finish materials in a room. the fire resistance periods based on flame-through of floor assembly and structural failure of floor joists varied from 10 to 12 minutes for floors with unprotected wood joists and was 4 minutes or less for floors with unprotected steel joists. The addition of a 12.7 mm thick gypsum board ceiling as a protective layer increased the fire resistance time of the steel joisted floor assembly approximately 12 minutes.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) -

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

fire endurance, fire tests, flame through, floors, furniture, interior finishes, joists, room fires, steels, wood

Citation

Fang, J. (1980), Fire Performance of Selected Residential Floor Constructions Under Room Burnout Conditions. Interim Report., NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=107004 (Accessed October 5, 2025)