Fire &Smoke Dynamics Practical

Experiment No.

Aim:
To determine the flame spread of textiles by testing vertically oriented specimens in
accordance with IS 15612(Part4) and IS 15590.

Theory:
Flame spread is primarily a surface burning characteristic of materials, and a flame-
spread rating is a way to compare how rapid flame spreads on the surface of one material
compared to another.
The rate at which a fire will develop depends on how rapidly flame can spread from the
point of ignition to involve an increasingly large area of combustible material. In an enclosure,
the attainment of fully developed burning requires growth of the fire beyond a certain critical
size capable of producing high temperatures (typically >600◦C) at ceiling level. Although
enhanced radiation levels will increase the local rate of burning, it is the increasing area of the
fire that has the greater effect on flame size and rate of burning. Thus the characteristics of
flame spread over combustible materials must be examined as a basic component of fire
growth.
Table 1: Factors affecting rate of flame spread over combustible solids

Surface Orientation and Direction of Propagation

In general, solid surfaces can burn in any orientation, but flame spread is most rapid if
it is directed upwards on a vertical surface. Downward propagation is much slower.
The reason for this behaviour lies in the way in which the physical interaction between
the flame and the unburnt fuel changes as the orientation is varied (Figure 1). For downward
and horizontal spread, air entrainment into the flame leads to ‘counter-current spread’ (i.e.,
spread against the induced flow of air), but with upward spread on a vertical surface, the natural
buoyancy of the flame generates ‘concurrent spread’. This produces greatly enhanced rates of
spread as the flame and hot gases rise in the same direction.

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This can be illustrated with results of Magee and McAlevy on the upward propagation
of flame over strips of filter paper at inclinations between the horizontal and the vertical. Table
2 shows their results depicting values of rate of flame spread against the orientation as

Table 2: Rate of flame spread over strips of filter paper by Magee and McAlevy

Figure 1: Interaction between a spreading flame and the surface of a (thick) combustible solid
for different angles of inclination (a) −90o ; (b) −45 o ; (c) 0 o ; (d) +45 o ; (e) +90 o.

Thickness of the Fuel

The rate of spread will be inversely proportional to the thickness (τ ) of the material
There is ample evidence in the literature to support this conclusion. Magee and McAlevy quote
data obtained by Royal (1970), which show that for downward spread on vertical specimens of
thin cellulosic fuels,
V ∝ τ−1

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for thicknesses less than 1.5 mm. This has been confirmed by results of Suzuki et al . (1994)
with samples prepared from filter paper, and similar relationships have been demonstrated for
fabrics where the rate has been shown to be inversely proportional to the ‘weight’ of the fabric.

Geometry of the Sample

(a) Width. The width of a sample has little or no effect on the rate of vertically downward
spread provided that edge effects do not dominate the behaviour. The situation is different for
vertically upward burning.

(b) Presence of edges. Flame spreads much more rapidly along an edge or in a corner than over
a flat surface.

Environmental Effects

(a) Composition of the atmosphere. Combustible materials will ignite more readily, spread
flame more rapidly and burn more vigorously if the oxygen concentration is increased. This is
of practical significance as there are many locations where oxygen enriched atmospheres
(OEAs) may be produced accidentally (e.g., leakage from the oxygen supply system in a
hospital or leakage from oxygen cylinders used for oxyacetylene welding) and several where
OEAs are produced deliberately (e.g., ‘oxygen tents’ in intensive care units).

(b) Fuel temperature. Increasing the temperature of the fuel increases the rate of flame spread.
Intuitively this is to be expected as the higher the initial fuel temperature the less heat is
required to raise the unaffected fuel to the firepoint ahead of the flame.

(c) Imposed radiant heat flux. An imposed radiant heat flux will cause an increase in the rate
of flame spread, primarily by preheating the fuel ahead of the flame front.

(d) Atmospheric pressure. Higher rates of flame spread are observed at increased atmospheric
pressure as a result of two contributory factors: (i) there is effective oxygen enrichment which
enhances flame stability at the surface; and (ii) the convective heat transfer coefficient is
increased.

(e) Imposed air movement (wind). In general, confluent air movement will enhance the rate of
spread of flame over a combustible surface

Procedure:
(a) Setting up Apparatus (surface ignition):

1. Mounting of the test specimen

Place the test specimen on the pins of the test specimen holder, making certain that
specimen is at least 20 mm away from the rectangular metal frame of the test specimen holder.
2. Operating position of the burner

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Position the burner perpendicular to the surface of the test specimen such that the axis
of the burner stabilizer is 20 mm above the line of the lower pins and is aligned with the vertical
centreline of the face of the test specimen. Ensure that the tip of the burner is (17+ 1) mm from
the surface of the test specimen
3. Flame adjustment —-horizontal reach
Set the burner in the vertical standby position. Light the burner and preheat it for at
least 2 min. Move the burner into the horizontal standby position and adjust the horizontal
reach of the flame to (25 +2) mm measured as the distance from the tip of the burner stabilizer
to the extreme end of the yellow part of the flame when viewed against a dark background (see
Figure 3).

(b) Test Procedure (surface ignition):

Spread of flame shall be tested according to IS 15590 using commercial propane gas and
adopting the following procedure:
1. Attach the marker threads at the specified locations on frame of the test specimen holder,
imposing sufficient tension to the thread to maintain its position relative to the specimen,
only the first and the third marker thread shall be used.

2. Apply the test flame for 10 s or the ignition time determined as the critical ignition time
in ISO 6940 testing and observe and record:

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(a) the time in seconds from the start of the application of the test flame until the
severance of the lower (first) marker thread;
(b) the time in seconds from the start of the application of the test flame until the
severance of the middle (second) marker thread;
(c) the time in seconds from the start of the application of the test flame until the
severance of the upper (third) marker thread;

3. Repeat 10.1.2 and 10.1.3 on the remaining five test specimens, with the same surface
of all specimens exposed towards the flame.

Observation:

Observations shall be recorded in following table:

Time to Time to Max. Max. Flame

Cloth Afterflame Afterglow
reach first reach third Burnt Burnt spread
material time time
marker marker length width rate
(seconds) (seconds)
(seconds) (seconds) (mm) (mm) (mm/s)

Calculation:
The flame spread rate, V, in mm/s, shall be calculated using the following equation:

V = 300/ (t3 – t1)

where,
t1 = time from the start of the application of the ignition flame to the severance of the
first marker thread, in seconds; and
t3 = time, from the start of the application of the ignition flame to the severance of the
third marker thread, in seconds.

Result:
Flame spread rate for different textile samples was calculated by testing in accordance
with IS 15612(Part4) and IS 15590 test apparatus and the sample with maximum flame spread
was found to be

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