Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A post-flashover fire model was used to predict the heat release rate of fully-developed fires inside of intercity and subway type railcars with polycarbonate windows. Peak heat release rates ranged from 14-41 MW and were sensitive to the initial number of doors open, time at which the polycarbonate windows fell out, and fire properties of interior finish materials. In some cases, the predicted heat release rate increased by 3-27 MW when the windows fell out. The magnitude of this increase was dependent on whether sufficient fuel was available to support the larger fire.