Experimental study of horizontal flame spread over rigid polyurethane foam on a plateau: effects of sample width and ambient pressure

The effects of sample width and ambient pressure on horizontal flame spread over horizontal rigid polyurethane foams are experimentally studied. A series of comparative experiments are conducted at two places with different altitudes in China. The sample surface temperature, spread rate, and height of flame are measured over a range of sample widths from 4 to 16cm. Experimental results show that the horizontal flame spread rate decreases as the sample width increases in a negative power law at both two altitudes and the flame spread rate in the Hefei plain (at an altitude of 30m) is larger than that on the Tibetan plateau (at an altitude of 3658m) of the same width. The horizontal flame spread mechanism on the rigid polyurethane foam is analyzed qualitatively in comparison with the results of the flame spread rate of expanded polystyrene foams. The relationship between the dimensionless flame height (H-f/W) and the sample width (W) is obtained by using Froude number similarity. It is found based on the experimental data under two different ambient pressures that the average value of the exponent of the ambient pressure in the power law for the horizontal flame spread rate is about 1.9, which is in good agreement with the theoretical value 2.0. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.