Fire performance of wire and cable reaction-to-fire tests :

Traditional fire test methods have not required interpretation-pass/fail or a single number was recorded. New methods, such as the Cone Calorimeter or the furniture calorimeter, produce a large array of scientifically based data for each product tested. Thus, the issue of data selection and presentation becomes quite important in being able to adequately utilize such results. The new test methods were first developed and popularized by persons associated with fire-modeling activities. Not surprisingly, the initial developments of data analysis and presentation techniques were such as to be suitable for fire scientists. The tasks of fire scientists, however, are generally different from those of the producers, specifiers or users of various products. These latter classes of users are normally not interested in test diagnostics, portability of data, analysis of environmental effects, etc. Instead, they are interested primarily in questions such as: Is product A better than product B and, if so, by how much? These are entirely proper questions and their answers are essential to correct specification and use of products. In this paper details of variables useful to both classes of individuals are compared and contrasted. Recommendations are made as to certain variables which are essential for the product makerlspecifierluser and which could form the basis of standard product specification formats.

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Specimen heat fluxes for bench‐scale heat release rate testing

Babrauskas¹

1995

Fire and Materials

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When a specimen is tested for its heat release rate (HRR) behavior using a bench-scale test such as I S 0 5660 or equivalent, one very important test condition is not pre-standardized and must be set: the heat flux to be imposed on the specimen by the heater. The heat flux cannot be legitimately standardized, since the value appropriately to be used will differ according to purpose or application. The present paper sets forth the considerations which should govern the correct choice of heat flux. A discussion is given of minimum ignitability level; statistical variability at low heat fluxes; the ranges of heat fluxes associated with small actual ignition sources; the heat fluxes associated with fires away from the ignition source, all the way up to fully-involved room fires; the application of the product; and the needs associated with mathematical modeling of room fires. Correlational approaches are also illustrated and contrasted to physicsbased ones. Finally, the empirical nature of the present situation is emphasized. Judged from first principles, it would appear that successful prediction of room fire results from bench-scale test data would require both the testing at a large number of different beat fluxes and the use of algorithms to permit time-dependent interpolation. Such algorithms have been proposed; however, some very successful predictions are noted with much simpler techniques.

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Fire performance of wire and cable reaction-to-fire tests :

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Electrical Cables and Equipment

Electrical Cables and Equipment

Describing product fire performance—manufacturers' versus modelers' needs

Specimen heat fluxes for bench‐scale heat release rate testing

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