Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Two series of full scale experiments were conducted to analyze the mechanism of the transition to flashover in a room with plywood walls and noncombustible, ceiling. Burn tests using a 12.25. x 2.60m x 2.54m (high) enclosure with a propane burner at a corner suggest that the transition is caused by the heating of walls by smoke layer and the smoke layer excess temperature around 350K is the criteria. Measurement of heat release distribution from walls using a 1.65. x 1.65 . x 2.50.(high) open-corner apparatus suggest that corner wall of wood in such configuration could generate comparable energy with that from the source, and heat release from the top of wall-corner may become significant enough after the ignition by the strong radiation from the corner ceiling.