Citation

Charuchinda S, Suzuki M, Dobashi R, Hirano T. Fire Safety J. 2001; 36(4): 313-325.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The behavior of flames spreading downward over napped cotton/polyester (75/25) fabrics has been experimentally investigated. The degree of napping, represented by nap thickness, was determined using an image processing technique. The dependence of the behavior of flame spread on nap thickness was examined. Flame spread over fabrics without surface flash, with intermittent surface flash, and with surface flash was observed, recorded and analyzed. The critical nap thickness (2 mm) for surface flash occurrence was found. The rate of surface flash flame spreads is more than 100 times faster than that of flame spread without surface flash. A part of nap remains unburned after surface flash. It was found that the thickness of the remaining nap region (unburned nap thickness) is almost constant around 1.3 mm. The difference between this unburned nap thickness (1.3 mm) and the critical nap thickness (2.0 mm) might correspond to the minimum burned nap thickness, which is needed to sustain surface flash.