New Fire Protection Materials

Published

January 26, 2024

Author(s)

Andre Thompson

Abstract

Residential upholstered furniture (RUF) is the leading combustible in fatal fires in the United States. In the last few decades, fire-retardant (FRs) chemicals have been largely used in attempt to reduce RUF flammability; however, concerns about possible deleterious effects on human health and the environment, led to a public backlash and to a reassessment of costs/benefits associated with the use of such chemicals. In this regard, fire barriers offer a potential solution. Fire barriers are usually fabrics placed between the padding materials like flexible polyurethane foam and the cover fabric. Fire barriers can prevent/delay ignition of the padding material and reduce the fire growth rate after flaming ignition by limiting heat transfer to a flammable substrate and controlling the rate and location at which volatiles are released and able to burn. These heat and mass transfer effects are physically based thus no chemical FRs are needed. This chapter will investigate the effect of mass transfer of liquid products through burning fire barriers to better understand the key parameters affecting the performance and failure of barriers on a small and large scale and investigate to what extent barriers can delay fire growth of RUF when exposed to a strong ignition source.

Citation

Intelligent Building Fire Safety and Smart Firefighting

Publisher Info

Springer, New York City, NY

Pub Type

Book Chapters

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48161-1_9

Local Download

Keywords

Fire Barrier, residential upholstered furniture, flammability

Citation

Thompson, A. (2024), New Fire Protection Materials, Intelligent Building Fire Safety and Smart Firefighting, Springer, New York City, NY, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48161-1_9, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936377 (Accessed October 13, 2025)