Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation into the flaming combustion characteristics of wood-based materials. The present work was primarily motivated by the fact that combustible solids, particularly cellulosic materials, often constitute the bulk of fuels in many building fires. In order to achieve this task a number of small-scale experiments on samples of different wood species were performed using a cone calorimeter. In all cases the effects of controlling factors, such as the irradiance level, moisture content and the orientation of the sample were carefully examined. It was found that the experimental data are quite sensitive to these factors. In particular, the effect of the moisture content on the heat of combustion and heat release rate was found to be quite significant. The results of the experiments were also used to develop some useful correlations.