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Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment : Fire properties of selected materials and products

Madsen, Dan LU orcid ; Barton, John LU ; van Hees, Patrick LU ; Malmborg, Vilhelm LU orcid ; Gren, Louise LU ; Gudmundsson, Anders LU and Pagels, Joakim LU (2019)
Abstract
Characterization of emissions from fires in a laboratory-controlled environment are presented in this report. The project is initiated by the CERN HSE Unit and is called FIRIA, Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment. The objective of FIRIA is to enhance the knowledge of aerosols emitted from fires in order to develop dispersion models of radiologically-activated material in case of fire. In this report, several normally occurring combustible products and materials are tested in a standardized setup for fire tests, the cone calorimeter. In the cone calorimeter, standardized fire tests according to ISO 5660-1:2015 have been performed as well as fire tests at reduced oxygen concentrations in a vitiated air chamber. As an additional... (More)
Characterization of emissions from fires in a laboratory-controlled environment are presented in this report. The project is initiated by the CERN HSE Unit and is called FIRIA, Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment. The objective of FIRIA is to enhance the knowledge of aerosols emitted from fires in order to develop dispersion models of radiologically-activated material in case of fire. In this report, several normally occurring combustible products and materials are tested in a standardized setup for fire tests, the cone calorimeter. In the cone calorimeter, standardized fire tests according to ISO 5660-1:2015 have been performed as well as fire tests at reduced oxygen concentrations in a vitiated air chamber. As an additional setup, aerosol measurement equipment was coupled to the cone calorimeter ventilation duct to characterize the emitted aerosols as in the particle size distribution, mass yield and elemental analysis.
The results show peak heat release rates for oil at 1100 kW/m2 at an incident heat flux of 50 kW/m2. Similar results for the plastic materials were 800 kW/m2. For cables and insulating plastic materials peak heat release rates at an incident heat flux of 50 kW/m2 were around 350 kW/m2. Significant for most of the cables was a heat release rate curve with two distinct peaks. This is proposed to be due to the outer combustible sheath burning first followed by the interior plastic insulating material of the cables burning. There could also be heat transfer effects and cracking of the material surface contributing to the two peaks. Nevertheless, for some cables a low incident heat flux led to only one peak indicating that only the sheath ignited. Time to ignition varied between the materials but was increased as the incident heat flux decreased. Reduced oxygen concentration in the vitiated air chamber also prolonged the ignition time as well as the heat release rates. The critical heat flux to ignite the cables was calculated to be just below 10 kW/m2. The oil and two cable types were tested in the vitiated air chamber to perform tests at reduced oxygen concentrations. These tests were performed to retrieve specific fire properties as well as specific emissions from such conditions. The tests were performed with a progressively lower oxygen concentrations until no ignition of the sample occurred. Results showed an ignition limit around 11-13 % oxygen at incident heat fluxes of 20-30 kW/m2. The tests in the vitiated air chamber is described in subreport FIRIA- Fire properties of selected materials and products in reduced oxygen conditions. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Cone Calorimeter, Fire properties, Hypoxic air, Fire Aerosols, Soot, Fire emissions
pages
68 pages
publisher
Lund University
project
Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment ─ Aerosol Characterization
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The CERN Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment (FIRIA) fire properties final report. Research funded by CERN FIRIA project under collaboration agreement K3751 (Geneva, Switzerland).
id
4aeca667-c4d4-4248-95d5-a59c52620d8a
date added to LUP
2024-02-12 09:58:44
date last changed
2024-03-06 14:23:06
@techreport{4aeca667-c4d4-4248-95d5-a59c52620d8a,
  abstract     = {{Characterization of emissions from fires in a laboratory-controlled environment are presented in this report. The project is initiated by the CERN HSE Unit and is called FIRIA, Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment. The objective of FIRIA is to enhance the knowledge of aerosols emitted from fires in order to develop dispersion models of radiologically-activated material in case of fire. In this report, several normally occurring combustible products and materials are tested in a standardized setup for fire tests, the cone calorimeter. In the cone calorimeter, standardized fire tests according to ISO 5660-1:2015 have been performed as well as fire tests at reduced oxygen concentrations in a vitiated air chamber. As an additional setup, aerosol measurement equipment was coupled to the cone calorimeter ventilation duct to characterize the emitted aerosols as in the particle size distribution, mass yield and elemental analysis.<br/>The results show peak heat release rates for oil at 1100 kW/m2 at an incident heat flux of 50 kW/m2. Similar results for the plastic materials were 800 kW/m2. For cables and insulating plastic materials peak heat release rates at an incident heat flux of 50 kW/m2 were around 350 kW/m2. Significant for most of the cables was a heat release rate curve with two distinct peaks. This is proposed to be due to the outer combustible sheath burning first followed by the interior plastic insulating material of the cables burning. There could also be heat transfer effects and cracking of the material surface contributing to the two peaks. Nevertheless, for some cables a low incident heat flux led to only one peak indicating that only the sheath ignited. Time to ignition varied between the materials but was increased as the incident heat flux decreased. Reduced oxygen concentration in the vitiated air chamber also prolonged the ignition time as well as the heat release rates. The critical heat flux to ignite the cables was calculated to be just below 10 kW/m2. The oil and two cable types were tested in the vitiated air chamber to perform tests at reduced oxygen concentrations. These tests were performed to retrieve specific fire properties as well as specific emissions from such conditions. The tests were performed with a progressively lower oxygen concentrations until no ignition of the sample occurred. Results showed an ignition limit around 11-13 % oxygen at incident heat fluxes of 20-30 kW/m2. The tests in the vitiated air chamber is described in subreport FIRIA- Fire properties of selected materials and products in reduced oxygen conditions.}},
  author       = {{Madsen, Dan and Barton, John and van Hees, Patrick and Malmborg, Vilhelm and Gren, Louise and Gudmundsson, Anders and Pagels, Joakim}},
  institution  = {{Lund University}},
  keywords     = {{Cone Calorimeter; Fire properties; Hypoxic air; Fire Aerosols; Soot; Fire emissions}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  title        = {{Fire-Induced Radiological Integrated Assessment : Fire properties of selected materials and products}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/171166701/FIRIA-fire_properties_FD-03.pdf}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}