Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A simplified calculation method for heat release rate of thermoplastic combustible materials was developed. The model takes into account for the variation of area of melting, stacked and burnout surfaces. All the procedure was expressed in terms of analytical formula for the convenience of use in design calculations. The calculated results were compared with three independent experiments published in literatures. In case of thin polyurethane mattress, spread of melting surface in horizontal direction was predicted fairly. However the prediction of downward spread was poor. Reflecting the errors in the position of melting surface, calculated HRR curves had some differences in their pattern. As to thick mattress, prediction of melting front was better, however the peak HRR value was underestimated because of the burning of side surfaces in experiments.