Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Previous experiments on the rate of burning of fires in single compartments with small windows have shown that over a wide range of scale the rate of burning is proportional to the air flow into the compartment. There was, however, some variation in the results unaccounted for by this effect and accordingly in this note experiments are described in which various amounts and surface areas of one type of fuel were burnt in a model room with a small window. The results show that over the range of experiments the burning rates varied by a factor of nearly 2:1, although the window opening was kept constant. This variation could not be simply correlated with a surface area effect as might be imagined at first sight, but because it is sufficiently large to make any prediction of the required fire resistance of a structure liable to up to 100 per cent error, it cannot be neglected, and a further, more detailed study of fire behaviour in rooms is called for. Data on flame height outside the room and internal temperature are also reported and discussed.