Citation

Dembsey NA, Williamson RB. Fire Safety J. 1993; 21(4): 313-330.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The potential fire hazard presented by plastic based combustible interior finish materials is discussed. Compartment fire experimental methods and apparatus based on Uniform Building Code Standard No. 42-2 were used to study the effect of ignition source exposure and specimen configuration on the actual fire growth characteristics of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam wall covering. The results obtained are qualitative in nature, clearly demonstrating two important characteristics of the fire behavior of PVC foam: (i) the PVC foam has a 'critical' ignition source strenght of 64-75 kW; (ii) preheating the PVC foam greatly increases its peak net rate of heat release.