Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Fabric products such as curtains and bedclothes play an important role for the propagation in an early stage of fire. However the flame retardant standard test currently used in Japan for such fabric material pays more attention to ignitability than flammability and any characteristics of combustion. In this study, the full-scale burning test of curtains was conducted by using a room calorimeter to obtain information for future flammable test developments associated with fabric products. Prior to the experiment a set of ignition heat source model is introduced from wastebasket fire tests i.e., 50 kW for 5 min. and 3 0kW for 10 min. The heat release rate of various kinds o f curtains are examined under different ignition heat source conditions. Some discrepancies of test results between the full scale and the present standard flame retardants tests are found. These are caused by thermal characteristics of fabric material such as melting and shrinking. To develop new evaluation test methods, these characteristics should be taken into account.