Simulating real compartment fire conditions in a furnace

In the United States, wood has been traditionally used in residential construction. However, the combustibility of wood still limits its use as a building material in prescriptive building codes, and to overcome the limitations, performance-based codes can be used. In order to properly analyze performance-based designs, more information on the fire performance of materials is required, including fire performance under different fire exposures. The char rate when timber elements are exposed to the standard time-temperature curve have been well characterized and can be used to determine the fire-resistance rating. However, much less is known about the rate of char formation under other fire exposures and time-temperature curves. In this study, we used time-temperature data from full-scale compartment fire tests and applied that data in an intermediate-scale horizontal furnace. By measuring the furnace temperature, fuel consumption, and heat flux during the various tests, we identified that the furnace could closely replicate the shape of a real time-temperature fire curve from a ventilation controlled compartment. However, the furnace fell short in terms of meeting the peak temperatures at flashover and heat fluxes expected in a real compartment fire.