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The fire resistance test and its relation to real-world fires

From National Research Council Canada

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DOIResolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.4224/40001699
AuthorSearch for: 1
Affiliation
  1. National Research Council of Canada
FormatText, Article
SubjectPerformance of:; fire resistance tests; furnaces; efficiency; normalized heat load; fire resistance test furnaces characteristics, efficiency; furnace size effects; furnace gas effects; theorem of uniformity of normalized heat load
Abstract
The characteristics of fire resistance test furnaces are examined. It is shown that the efficiency of a furnace, as measured in terms of the heat load it imposes on a test specimen, depends markedly on the size of the furnace and the nature of the furnace gas. Only with large furnaces heated by gases of high radiation potential (near-black gases) can the test results be regarded as meaningful and reproducible. Relining a defective furnace with a material of very low thermal inertia, though helpful, is unlikely to bring its performance up to the required level. Methods of determining the efficiency of test furnaces are outlined. The theorem of uniformity of normalized heat load is of satisfactory validity when applied to real-world compartment fires. The normalized heat load is recognized as a succinct descriptor of fires with respect to their destructive potential. As such, it forms the basis for correlating real- world fires with standard test fires.
Publication date
PublisherNational Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research
Series
  • Paper (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), no. DBR-P-1022 (1981).
NoteReprinted from: Fire and Materials, v. 5, no. 3, 1981, p. 112-122. ISSN: 0308-0501
LanguageEnglish
Peer reviewedYes
NRC numberNRCC 20009
NRC-IRC-1518
NPARC number20378654
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Record identifier897f00d5-331f-446f-8199-6ca24a868bc7
Record created2012-07-24
Record modified2024-03-22
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