Quantitative Comparison of Maximum Heat Release Rates of Thermoplastics in Open and Compartment Fire Environments

Abstract

Consideration of appropriate fire scenarios in the simulations of the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) for the fire-risk assessment of buildings is a critical factor in the development of prevention and response measures. The user dependence of the FDS input parameters can threaten the reliability of the fire-risk assessment. An experimental study was conducted to establish correlations for considering appropriate fire scenarios using polymethyl methacrylate. To examine the changes in the maximum-heat-release rates (HRRs) according to the combustion environment, nine burners varying in size at 25 mm intervals were burned in open and compartment environments. The results indicated that compared with the fire phenomenon in the open environment, the maximum HRR and fire growth rate of the compartment fire were increased by factors of 3–50. Additionally, the compartment fire phenomena could be classified into three stages according to the changes in the aforementioned two physical quantities. An analysis of the experimental results revealed a correlation for predicting the maximum HRR of a compartment fire with various ventilation conditions using only the experimental results for the open environment. The maximum HRR predicted through this correlation exhibited an error of <15% relative to the values measured in the experiment.

Keywords

• performance-based fire safety design
• compartment fire
• maximum-heat-release rate
• correlation
• fire-risk assessment