Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Textiles are flexible woven materials. The spinning and weaving processes associated with their manufacture ensure that the finished materials are more or less a well aerated mass with good thermal insulating properties; unfortunately, this leads to conditions which are favourable to ignition and to the propagation of flame. Textiles, being flexible and subject to the usual gravitational forces, usually hang vertically; it is in this position that flame is most readily propagated and the heat transfer from the flame to the unburnt fabric ahead of the flame is greateat.