Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

In building fires, fuel is often exposed to reduced oxygen environments at various radiation levels. However, combustion behaviour under depleted oxygen environments during fire has not been investigated systematically. In this study, a cone calorimeter was reconstructed in order to control the combustion atmosphere. The supply oxygen level in the cone calorimeter varied from 10 to 21%. Three commonly used polyurethane foams were tested in experiments. The imposed radiation level varied from 10 to 20 kW/m² It was found that whilst both the radiation heat flux and the oxygen concentration affected most fire behaviour parameters the oxygen concentration had less effect on ignition time.