Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

To obtain data for use in fire modeling for hazard assessment, a plywood sample was burned in a modified Ohio State University Release Rate apparatus. Both incident heat flux and oxygen concentration in the supplied atmosphere were varied and concentrations of oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide were monitored during a 10 minute test period. Mass loss was measured at the end of the 10 minute period. The release rate and the total release of heat, carbon monoxide and smoke and t he mean mass loss rate were calculated from the experimental data. By reducing the 4 concentration, it was found that CO release increased suddenly at certain critical 0, concentrations while heat and smoke release decreased. The smoke release and CO release were in contrast since when CO increased, smoke decreased. Ranges for O2 Concentration at which a transition from flaming to non-flaming would occur were estimated from the heat and CO release data.