Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

An experimental and theoretical study on smoldering combustion of the flexible polyurethane foam is presented. The experiments are conducted in a small scale and horizontally oriented combustion chamber with a forced forward air flow through the foam. The air flux is controlled by a flow meter. Temperature histories during the smoldering combustion are measured by the thermocouples to probe the structure of the smoldering process and to calculate the smoldering propagation velocity. The results show the increasing air supply contributes to both enhance the oxidation reaction and increase the heat loss. The integral method is employed to develop the theoretical model of the one-dimensional forward smolder. Comparison is made between the model and the experimental results and shows a good agreement.