Experimental and Numerical Methods for Evaluating Fire Performance of Materials

这项研究计划的长期目标是提高对火灾过程中处于高热流和高温度下的材料中的热和质量传递的认识。了解这些条件下的热质传递是至关重要的，尤其是在评估消防安全时。在此期间，将通过侧重于两个具体的应用，在实现总体研究目标方面取得进展，文献、行业、监管者和最终用户指出需要改进模型以及设计和评价工具。 床垫和消费品。 虽然建筑材料和系统(如墙壁)和消费品(如床垫)的耐火性能是为了监管目的而使用全面测试来评估的，但此类测试非常昂贵，而且测试设施有限。使用小规模试验预测全尺寸火灾行为的方法将显著降低设计师、制造商和监管机构的火灾试验成本。然而，目前还不存在可靠的缩放方法。 我们的团队已经确定了可以预测床垫和其他消费品中的聚亚安酯泡沫的全尺寸防火性能的测量方法。这些方法将得到改进，以更好地预测火灾增长，并将开发火焰传播模型，以及建议的为比例模型生成输入数据的小规模测试程序。考虑到聚氨酯泡沫塑料与用作覆盖物和防火屏障的织物之间的相互作用，将开发完整的实心床垫的缩放方法。 防热衣物 我们现有的单层防护布的热传递模型将扩展到预测消防员穿戴的防护布的反应，其中包括管理水分运动和增加隔热性能的额外层。特别令人感兴趣的是相对较长的时间，主要是辐射暴露，例如在建筑物外的消防期间。水分传输对消防员的安全和舒适性起着重要作用，它将被添加到模型中，并将通过实验室规模的织物测试进行验证。 由于大多数标准测试是破坏性的，因此还将开发非破坏性测试来评估在用服装的持续性能。我们团队开发的使用颜色和红外反射率测量来预测拉伸强度变化的技术将得到改进，并将开发额外的测试来监控和预测水分传递性能、热防护和其他性能方面的退化。还将考虑由于洗涤、磨损和紫外线辐射造成的降解。研究将有助于更好地确定何时应该更换衣服，显著提高消防员以及石油天然气、采矿和其他行业工人的安全。

The long-term objective of this research program is to improve the knowledge of heat and mass transfer in materials subjected to high heat fluxes and temperatures during fires. Understanding heat and mass transfer under these conditions is critical, especially when evaluating fire safety. During this time period, progress will be made towards the overall research objective by focusing on two particular applications, where the literature, industry, regulators and end users indicate the need for improved models, and design and evaluation tools. Mattresses and Consumer Products. While the fire performance of building materials and systems (e.g., walls) and consumer products (e.g., mattresses) is evaluated for regulatory purposes using full-scale tests, such tests are very expensive and there are limited test facilities. Methods to predict full-scale fire behavior using small-scale tests would significantly reduce costs of fire testing for designers, manufacturers and regulators. However, reliable scaling methods do not currently exist. Our group has identified scaling methods with the potential to predict full-scale fire performance of polyurethane foam found in mattresses and other consumer products. These methods will be refined to better predict fire growth, and a flame spread model will be developed, along with recommended small scale test procedures for generating input data for the scaling models. Scaling methods for complete solid-core mattresses will be developed, taking into account the interaction of polyurethane foam with fabrics used as covers and fire barriers. Thermal Protective Clothing Our existing heat transfer models of single layer protective fabrics will be extended to predict the response of protective fabrics worn by firefighters, which include additional layers to manage moisture movement and increase thermal insulation. Of particular interest are relatively long term, primarily radiant exposures, such as during firefighting outside of a building. Moisture transport, which plays a major role in firefighter safety and comfort, will be added to the models, which will be validated using bench-scale fabric tests. As most standard tests are destructive, non-destructive tests will also be developed to evaluate the continuing performance of in-use clothing. Techniques that our group developed to predict changes in tensile strength using colour and infrared reflectance measurements will be refined, and additional tests will be developed to monitor and predict degradation of moisture transfer properties, thermal protection and other aspects of performance. Degradation due to laundering, abrasion and ultraviolet radiation will also be considered. Research will help better determine when clothing should be replaced, significantly improving safety of firefighters, and workers in the oil and gas, mining and other industries.