Effects of exposed cross laminated timber on compartment fire dynamics

Hadden, Rory M.; Bartlett, Alastair I.; Hidalgo, Juan P.; Santamaria, Simón; Wiesner, Felix; Bisby, Luke; Deeny, Susan; Lane, Barbara

doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.03.074

Cited by 70 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Hadden et al [126] also carried out a series of compartment fire experiments in a 2.7 m 9 2.7 m 9 2.7 m room, with partially exposed CLT surfaces. They observed sharp increases in burning rate coinciding with the onset of significant delamination.…”

Section: Delaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Factors Affecting the Burning Behaviour of Wood for Application to Tall Timber Construction

2018

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This paper presents a review of the pyrolysis, ignition, and combustion processes associated with wood, for application in tall timber construction. The burning behaviour of wood is complex. However the processes behind pyrolysis, ignition, combustion, and extinction are generally well understood, with good agreement in the fire science literature over a wide range of experimental conditions for key parameters such as critical heat flux for ignition (12 kW/m 2 ± 2 kW/m 2) and heat of combustion (17.5 MJ/kg ± 2.5 MJ/kg). These parameters are key for evaluating the risks posed by using timber as a construction material. Conversely, extinction conditions are less well defined and understood, with critical mass loss rates for extinction varying from 2.5 g/m 2 s to 5 g/m 2 s. A detailed meta-analysis of the fire resistance literature has shown that the rate of burning as characterised by charring rate averaged over the full test duration is observed to vary with material properties, in particular density and moisture content which induce a maximum 18% variability over the ranges expected in design. System properties are also shown to be important, with stochastic phenomena such as delamination and encapsulation failure resulting in changes to the charring rate that cannot be easily predicted. Finally, the fire exposure as defined by incident heat flux has by far the largest effect on charring rates over typical heat fluxes experienced in compartment fires. Current fire design guidance for engineered timber products is largely prescriptive, relying on fixed ''charring rates'' and ''zero-strength layers'' for structural analyses, and typically prescribing gypsum encapsulation to prevent or delay the involvement of timber in a fire. However, it is clear that the large body of scientific knowledge that exists can be used to explicitly address the fire safety issues that the use of timber introduces. However the application of this science in real buildings is identified as a key knowledge gap which if explored, will enable improved efficiencies and innovations in design.

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Section: Delaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Factors Affecting the Burning Behaviour of Wood for Application to Tall Timber Construction

2018

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“…Hadden et al. studied the effects of exposed cross-laminated timber on compartment fire dynamics using three different configurations [ 22 ]. They discovered that two mechanisms would prevent self-extinguishment.…”

Section: Phenomenon Of Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Interpol review of fire investigation 2016–2019

Stauffer

2020

Forensic Science International: Synergy

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“…repeated cycles of decay, delamination, and flashover) [14]. Furthermore, if some surfaces are encapsulated with gypsum plasterboard, it is possible (at any stage of the fire) that the encapsulation could fail resulting in sudden exposure of the underlying CLT, which will then ignite and contribute to the fire, characterised by a sudden increase in HRR [15,16].…”

Section: Peak Burning Prior To Char Layer Formation (Phase B1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of excess fuel from timber lined compartments

Bartlett

Law

2020

Construction and Building Materials

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External fire spread is a key risk faced by engineers in the design of buildings. This can be quantified by heat flux to an exposed surface, which is dependent on the conditions in the external fire plume. Introducing additional fuel in the form of exposed timber surfaces is shown to increase the energy released by external flaming, as defined by an excess fuel factor or Global Equivalence Ratio (GER). This paper presents a review of three recent experimental series exploring the effects of exposed timber on compartment fire dynamics, and uses experimental data to calculate the GER for each experiment. When combustion efficiency was assumed equal to one, Global Equivalence Ratios were found to range from 0.58 to 3.00; these corresponded to a compartment with a single exposed timber surface and a compartment with three exposed timber surfaces. A "burning factor" has been introduced to as a possible method to relate GER to the properties of the compartment. It is found that a relatively good correlation (R 2 >0.9) is achieved between burning factor and GER when only the compartment surfaces are burning, but that the correlation does not hold when other fuel load is also burning within the compartment.

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Effects of exposed cross laminated timber on compartment fire dynamics

Cited by 70 publications

References 5 publications

A Review of Factors Affecting the Burning Behaviour of Wood for Application to Tall Timber Construction

A Review of Factors Affecting the Burning Behaviour of Wood for Application to Tall Timber Construction

Interpol review of fire investigation 2016–2019

Influence of excess fuel from timber lined compartments

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