Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

fire plume, have been analyzed. In the analysis, measured ratios of release rates of heat and products and concentrations and heat of combustion and product yield ratios from the literature have been used. The analysis shows that conditions are close to stoichiometric combustion inside the passenger compartment and in the plume just before time to untenable/flashover conditions. The times to untenable/flashover conditions are in the range of 155 to 300 seconds for fires started in the rear of the vehicle and in the range of 645 to 1620 seconds for fires started in the front of the vehicle. Most of the time to untenable/flashover conditions is due to time taken by flames to enter the passenger compartment. In the vehicle fires, higher amount of fuel is converted to CO rather than to smoke under fuel-rich conditions. Relative contributions of the nitrogen and non-nitrogen containing fuels in vehicle fires is assessed from the ratio of HCN to CO concentrations. The analysis suggests that it is possible to model vehicle fires and assess the survivability of passenger through modifications to the vehicle and its polymer parts.