Office Work Station Heat Release Rate Study: Full Scale vs. Bench Scale

Published

March 26, 1996

Author(s)

Daniel M. Madrzykowski

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has conducted a study with office work stations to examine their heat release rates and to determine if the peak heat release rate for a work station can be predicted accurately from cone calorimeter results. Fifteen full scale fire experiments were conducted. Three types of work station panel construction and three work station configurations were examined. Preliminary results for the most common panel construction, fabric over fiberglass batting with a 6 mm thick hardboard core, are presented here. A method utilizing the peak heat release rate from the cone calorimeter experiments has been used successfully to predict peak heat release rates for the most common construction work station. This study is part of the Office Building Fire Research Program being conducted at NIST's Building and Fire Research Laboratory under the sponsorship of the U.S. General Services Administration.

Proceedings Title

Interscience Communications Ltd.

Conference Dates

March 26-28, 1996

Conference Location

London,

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

fire safety, fire behavior, furniture, heat release rate, cone calorimeters, experiments, large scale fire tests, heat flux

Citation

Madrzykowski, D. (1996), Office Work Station Heat Release Rate Study: Full Scale vs. Bench Scale, Interscience Communications Ltd. , London, , [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=910281 (Accessed October 15, 2025)