Fire Behavior of Upholstered Furniture and Mattresses

FIRE BEHAVIOR OF UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE AND MATTRESSES

John F. Krasny

Fire Technology Consultant, Kensington, MD 20895

William J. Parker

Fire Technology Consultant, Germantown, MD 20874

Vytenis Babrauskas

Fire Science and Technology Inc., Issaquah, WA 98027

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Preface

NOTICE

1. Introduction

1.1.0 UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS

1.2.0 UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE AND MATTRESSES

1.3.0 DESIGN AND FIRE SAFETY

1.4.0 UPHOLSTERED ITEM FIRE STATISTICS

1.5.0 SUMMARY OF REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT

2. Fundamentals

2.1.0 PYROLYSIS AND COMBUSTION

2.2.0 SMOLDERING

2.3.0 TRANSITION TO FLAMING

2.4.0 FLAMING IGNITION

2.5.0 FLAME SPREAD

2.6.0 HEAT RELEASE

2.7.0 PROPAGATING AND NON-PROPAGATING FIRES

2.8.0 INTER-ITEM SPREAD

2.9.0 INTERACTION WITH ENCLOSURE

2.10.0 FLASHOVER

2.11.0 SMOKE AND TOXIC GASES

3. Test Methods, Standards and Regulations

3.1.0 CIGARETTE IGNITION

3.2.0 FLAMING FIRE TESTS, STANDARDS, AND REGULATIONS

3.3.0 SMOKE AND TOXIC GASES

4. Ignition Sources

4.1.0 MATCHES, SMALL GAS FLAMES, AND METHENAMINE PILLS

4.2.0 WOOD CRIBS

4.3.0 NEWSPAPER SHEETS AND THEIR GAS BURNER REPLACEMENTS

4.4.0 WASTE PAPER BASKETS: REAL AND SIMULATED

4.5.0 RADIANT FLUX IGNITION SOURCES

4.6.0 OTHER IGNITION SOURCES AND LOCATIONS

4.7.0 LARGE OPEN-FLAME OR RADIATION SOURCES

5. Effects of Test Apparatus and of Test Scale

5.1.0 COMPARISON OF BENCH-SCALE RESULTS

5.2.0 COMPARISON OF BENCH AND FULL-SCALE RESULTS

6. Upholstered Item Design Engineering

6.1.0 IGNITION RESISTANCE TO CIGARETTES

6.2.0 FLAMING FIRES

6.4.0 TOXIC PRODUCTS

6.5.0 FIRE INVESTIGATIONS

7. Modeling

7.1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MODELING

7.2.0 FURNITURE FIRE MODELS

7.3.0 A COMPONENT HRR MODEL FOR FURNITURE COMPOSITES

7.4.0 CFD ROOM FIRE MODELS

8. Fire Hazard Analysis

8.1.0 SMOLDERING FIRES

8.2.0 FLAMING FIRES

8.3.0 THE ROLE OF HRR

8.4.0 THE ROLE OF OTHER FACTORS

8.5.0 RELATIONSHIP OF HRR AND AVAILABLE ESCAPE TIME

8.6.0 HAZARD PREDICTIONS BASED ON MODELING

9. Conclusions

Exercises and Solutions

EXERCISES

SOLUTIONS

Abbreviations

References

Index

Copyright

Copyright © 2001 by Noyes Publications

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-104716

ISBN: 0-8155-1457-3

Printed in the United States

Published in the United States of America by

Noyes Publications / William Andrew Publishing, LLC

13 Eaton Avenue

Norwich, NY 13815

1-800-932-7045

www.williamandrew.com

www.knovel.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preface

This book is a collection of the up-to-date science and engineering knowledge in the field of furniture fire flammability. For continuity and perspective, citations to older work are still maintained, even in cases where newer research has brought forth improved methods or better knowledge. Thus, the advancement of the state of the art can be seen in these pages.

In 1985, two of the present authors (Babrauskas and Krasny) published the first monograph devoted to upholstered furniture flammability. This was issued by National Bureau of Standards (now NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology) as Fire Behavior of Upholstered Furniture (NBS Monograph 173). Many new concepts and experimental results have been published since that time. The most comprehensive recent research study in this area has been Combustion Behavior of Upholstered Furniture (CBUF) which was sponsored by the European Union. Two of the authors, Babrauskas and Parker, had the privilege of participating in CBUF. This project, as well as many others, resulted in major improvements in this field. Thus, it became opportune to revise the monograph.

To be most useful to its intended user, this book was reorganized and structured more along the expected lines of enquiry from the user. This involved a major reexamination of the literature, especially coverage of new regulations and standard test methods. The review of regulations, however, is selective. Discussions are focused only on US, UK, and EU activities in this area. While numerous other countries have various regulations affecting aspect of furniture flammability, little if any technical work making reference to such regulations has ever been published in the English language.

In this book, the term upholstered item will sometimes be used to include upholstered furniture as well as upholstered parts of bedding (solid core and innerspring mattresses and upholstered bed frames). In many cases, however, it is appropriate to consider that statements made about chairs or about upholstered furniture also apply to various other types of upholstered items. Bedding, such as blankets, sheets, pillows, etc., are treated separately.

The book is arranged as follows:

• Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the structure and materials, fire safety design, fire statistics, and standards development.

• Chapter 2 discusses some of the fundamentals of fire which affect the fire safety of upholstered furniture. These include smoldering and flaming ignition, flame spread, heat release, inter-item fire spread, room-fire interaction, flashover, smoke, and toxic gases.

• Chapter 3 describes the pertinent test methods and regulations for smoldering and flaming ignition, flame spread, heat release rate (HRR), and smoke and toxic gas production for residential, public, and high risk occupancies.

• Chapter 4 addresses smoldering and flaming ignition and includes the historical development and the details of the ignition tests.

• Chapter 5 compares results obtained by different test methods, especially bench-scale and full-scale results, and furniture calorimeter and room results.

• Chapter 6 covers fire safety design, considering the effects of upholstered item construction and materials, separately for smoldering (cigarette) and flaming ignition. Emphasis is on thermal behavior, flaming or smoldering; the relative rates of smoke and combustion products release, which are, in the first approximation, related to the HRR for flaming fires, are less extensively reviewed.

• Chapter 7 briefly discusses room fire zone and field models as they pertain to furniture fires, furniture fire models, and correlation formulas, and a method for predicting the HRR of composites in the Cone calorimeter based on measurements of the individual components.

• Chapter 8 discusses fire hazard analysis, and describes a method of predicting the available escape time based on the HRR of the burning furniture.

• Chapter 9 offers brief conclusions about the current state of knowledge about furniture flammability.

July, 2000

Vytenis Babrauskas, Issaquah, Washington

NOTICE

To the best of our knowledge the information in this publication is accurate; however the Publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of, or consequences arising from, such information. This book is intended for informational purposes only. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the Publisher. Final determination of the suitability of any information or product for use contemplated by any user, and the manner of that use, is the sole responsibility of the user. We recommend that anyone intending to rely on any recommendation of materials or procedures mentioned in this publication should satisfy himself as to such suitability, and that he can meet all applicable safety and health standards.

1

Introduction

This book is a comprehensive revision of a 1985 monograph[1] authored by Babrauskas and Krasny. The intervening years saw few advances in the basic science of furniture combustion, but much work was done in applied areas, both in empirical studies and in regulatory activities. Thus, this edition is organized differently from the preceding book, and is specifically intended to provide useful information to any individuals with a responsibility for the fire safety of furniture.

Research from various parts of the world are encompassed in this book, but focus on regulation is mainly from the US perspective, with significant additional material on UK and EU activities, and more limited coverage of other parts of Europe. Other, briefer, overviews of the upholstered item fire situation in the UK and the US are found in Refs. 2–6. A comprehensive report on the results and analysis of an extensive European project on the post-ignition Combustion Behavior of Upholstered Furniture (CBUF)[7] references many important literature sources.

This chapter contains an overview of the basics of upholstery structure and fire safety design. Following this, fire statistics are presented. The chapter concludes with a brief history and status of US and EU regulations covering upholstered furniture and mattresses.

1.1.0 UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS

Upholstered furniture has a complex structure, as shown in Fig. 1-1. One item can contain fifteen or more components. In the ignition process, whether it be from a cigarette (smoldering ignition) or small flame, the cover and interliner fabric, if any, and material immediately below them (one or several different padding materials) are important. As the fire progresses, other materials contribute, including the bulk of the padding as well as the frame, staples, and springs, which can affect the manner in which the burning item collapses. This in turn affects fire growth. Bedding (pillows, blankets, sheets, etc.), mattresses, and bed frames contain a different variety of materials and construction factors.

Figure 1-1. Upholstered furniture construction details.

A large variety of component materials are used in upholstered furniture and mattresses. Cover fabrics can be made from char-forming fibers, such as cellulosic, acrylic, wool, and silk fibers, or from thermoplastic fibers. Among the cellulosic fibers, cotton and rayon predominate but flax, hemp, jute, etc. are also used. Thermoplastic fibers include nylon, olefin (polypropylene or polyethylene), and polyester. Fabrics using blends of more than one fiber type have become very popular in the last decade. Fabrics often contain dyes and dye auxiliaries, print auxiliaries, and other finishes, e.g., stain and water repellents, and softeners. Raw cotton fabrics contain smolder promoting alkali metal ions, as do many of the fabric finishing agents. Many fabrics have latex back-coatings.

Paddings today are predominantly polyurethane foams varying in density and additives. Polyurethane may be used as a thin layer combined with other paddings, or, more frequently, as the entire core. Cellulosic batting (mostly cotton but also containing hemp, jute, etc.), both untreated or flame retarded treated (FR), and cotton/man-made fiber blend batting are also used. Polyester batting is popular for special comfort and appearance effects.

Interliners (also often called barrier materials, fire blockers, or blocking layers) are used between the cover fabric and padding to increase ignition resistance and improve burning behavior. For cigarette ignition resistance, thin layers of polyester batting are popular (paddings of 100% polyester batting are less widely used; they tend to have excessive loft and are mostly found in uses other than seats). Flame-resistant interliners are FR-treated cotton, aluminized materials, glass fabrics, layers of FR foams, aramid non-wovens, etc.

In addition, furniture and mattresses often contain innersprings, frames (mostly wood or steel, but sometimes rigid polyurethane or high-density polypropylene), springs, or straps to hold up cushions, bottom cover fabrics (usually nonwoven or cotton fabrics), nails, and staples.

1.2.0 UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE AND MATTRESSES

Many aspects of flammability are similar for upholstered furniture and mattresses. The similarities and differences pertinent to predicting the fire performance have been analyzed in Ref. 8.

Upholstered items in residential or public occupancies, or air, maritime, and ground transportation are all subject to different functional requirements and regulations.

Upholstered items include a large variety of constructions: three-or-two seat sofas, chairs, mattresses, and some bedframes. The furniture geometry can have a large effect on progress of the fires. There are fully and partially upholstered types, recliners, and lightly upholstered office and stacking chairs. Chairs or sofas can have straight or curved sides, the seating area can be square or rounded (barrel chairs), there may or may not be upholstered armrests, etc. Loose or puckered cover fabrics have appeared in recent times, and their effect on flame and cigarette ignitability has not been established. There are also such features as open or padded seat sides, open spaces between seat and backrest, etc.

Mattresses have predominantly flat, horizontal surfaces which are not as easily ignited from flame ignition sources as the vertical surfaces. Upholstered bed frames (divan bases) are more common in Europe than in the US. Both mattresses and upholstered furniture may have depressions at the welt cord and, due to tufting, these may affect cigarette ignition propensity.

Cigarettes on mattresses may be covered inadvertently with sheets, blankets, and/or pillows. This increases the probability of smoldering ignition. These intermediary materials may also ignite more readily than mattresses from flames, and then expose the mattress to a much more severe fire than the original ignition source, e.g., a match. Fire development is also affected by the nature and materials of the bed frame. Consequently, it is more difficult to develop relevant ignition tests and standards for bedding than for upholstered furniture, which is not usually covered by extraneous items.

1.3.0 DESIGN AND FIRE SAFETY

While fire problems with upholstered furniture have been of concern for some decades, it has been mainly since the 1970s that quantitative data have been available for common materials used in upholstered items. These efforts have made it possible to treat the subject as a design or prediction problem. In a design problem, the designer is typically required to come up with materials and configurations suitable to meet a set objective, which may be resistance to ignition by cigarettes, resistance to small or large flames, or, smoke and toxic pyrolysis product release rates below some specified amount. Several means of solving such problems are:

1. Test items made from the same materials, in the same configuration, as the proposed line of furniture in a full scale facility, e.g., a room or furniture calorimeter;

2. Test large-scale mock-ups of the fabric, interliner, and padding;

3. Test bench-scale composites of the materials in item 1 and use the results in a full-scale model or correlation formula;

4. Test the fabrics and foams individually and use the results in a composite model or correlation formula to predict the results of tests of furniture composites in the Cone Calorimeter. However, the tests on the individual components require modified test procedures in the Cone Calorimeter which are not, at this writing, generally available in the testing laboratories; although the testing protocols are described in the CBUF report.[7]

In the last years, much progress has been made to eliminate the burden of full scale testing of every material/configuration combination a manufacturer may wish to produce, and to place greater reliance on strategy 3 and, possibly, strategy 4. At the end of this chapter, an overview is given of the CBUF project which is the latest of such efforts. Details of CBUF and other available literature on this subject are reviewed in Chs. 5, 6, and 8. Briefly, it is now possible, within certain limits, to estimate from bench-scale tests of both mattresses and upholstered furniture fabric/padding composites whether the actual item will support a smoldering or a flaming ignition and whether the flaming ignition will lead to a fully involved fire. Such estimates can be used to decide whether certain regulatory pass/fail levels can be met. Progress has also been made in predicting the heat release rate (HRR) of propagating furniture and mattress fires.

1.4.0 UPHOLSTERED ITEM FIRE STATISTICS

During the 1991 to 1995 period, there was an average of 446,700 home fires, 3590 civilian deaths, 20,382 civilian injuries, and $4.5 billion property damage.[576]–[579] This is a decrease of almost 150,000 fires from the 1983–1987 period, and of a 19% decrease in civilian deaths. However, the number of deaths per 100,000 fires has not been decreasing. Furthermore, the number of civilian injuries and property damage increased during this period. Civilian deaths may be reduced by better medical treatment, and the increase in property damage can perhaps be explained by the 1991 Oakland, CA, firestorm.

The table below shows the number of fires, deaths, injuries, and property damage due to upholstered item fires. As in earlier such compilations, these fires were by far the largest cause of fire deaths; ranked high in injuries and relatively low in property damage. While together they represented only about 10% of the fires, they caused about 35% of the deaths; this indicates that upholstered item fires are considerably more likely to cause death than other categories.

Death, Injuries, and Damage Due to Fires in Which Upholstered Items Were The First Item to Ignite

Note: The next lower first item-to-ignite category was electrical insulation, 7.7% of fire deaths, followed by floor covering and cooking materials, 3.5% each.

*The number after the slash indicates the percent of the total fires, deaths, injuries, or property damage.

Cigarettes or discarded material, presumably matches, account for 39% of the upholstered item fires and 52% of deaths dues to upholstered items. Incendiary fires were next in frequency. People falling asleep while smoking accounted for 13% of the fires.

For mattresses and bedding, 56% of fires occurred on items with cotton fabrics, 24% in man-made fiber items, while the fabric was unclassified or classified other known in 20%. Children started 8700 (30%) fires, and smoking materials and matches or lighters, 5800 (20%). People falling asleep again were a major factor in these fires, with 1700 (6%) fires.

The CPSC estimated that in 1996 there were 650 deaths due to upholstered furniture as first item to ignite, 1640 injuries and $250 million in direct damages and $3.7 billion in total societal cost.[580] There were 470 cigarette-initiated fire deaths (down from 1200 in 1981). Small open-flame ignitions accounted for an average of 90 deaths over the years 1990–1996, 440 injuries and $50 million damages. Two thirds of the deaths were children under five years of age. Children of that age also were the mostly responsible for these fires.

An earlier analysis of US fire accident data by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimated that there were an average of 22,900 residential fires in which upholstered furniture was the first item to ignite, and 42,500 mattress and bedding fires during the years 1983 to 1987.[9] The upholstered furniture and mattress fires represented 11% of the residential fires, 40% of the deaths, 27% of the injuries, and 16% of the property damages. Upholstered item fires are the single largest cause of fire fatalities in the US; the next highest death figure is 7% for interior wall covering fires (as reported to be the first item to ignite but some walls might have been ignited by upholstered furniture). Another report reviews the available data in considerable detail.[10] It specifically discusses the increasing role of polyurethane foam in furniture fires, which may have increased the severity of furniture fires, even as their number is decreasing.

In the US, 69% of all fires attended by the fire services are post-flashover fires, with the majority of deaths occurring outside the room of fire origin.[11][12] This implies the need for studying both fire development in the room of origin and spread of hot smoke and toxic gases to the rest of the building. Computer fire simulation programs have been found very useful in this area.

On the other hand, the majority of elderly fire victims in the UK die in the room of origin, as reported in Ref. 7.

The conclusions of another NFPA investigation, this one specifically of US smoking-material initiated fires and using a variety of sources, were:[13]

• In 1988, lighted tobacco products caused 230,500 fires, an estimated 1,660 deaths, 4,300 civilian injuries, and $440 million in damage. This represents about 27% of the total number of US civilian fire deaths, and is by far the leading cause of fire deaths. However, smoking ranks only sixth among the causes of structural fires. Other major causes were heating equipment, matches and lighters, and electrical malfunction.

• Upholstered furniture and mattresses and bedding were the first item to ignite in 24,000 smoking material initiated residential fires, and resulted in 1,250 deaths, 2,700 civilian injuries, and $200 million in property damage. Other major items ignited in smoking material residential fires were trash and clothing not on a person. Smoking-material initiated fires also were a major factor in nonresidential structure fires, with trash, discarded mattresses and bedding, and upholstered furniture leading the list of first ignited items. The mortality and morbidity in the latter fires were much lower than those in residential fires.

• During the period of 1980 to 1988, the number of deaths per 100 smoking-related fires increased from 1.88 to 2.04 indicating an increase in the severity of such fires. This is in spite of the fact that there is a general reduction in fire deaths due to advances in the clinical treatment of burn injuries. Smoking-related fires were the second largest cause of civilian burn injuries.

• More than 95% of the smoking-material caused fires were started by cigarettes.

• Data for 1984 to 1988 shows that the risk of smoking material fire caused deaths increased with age. Death rate per million persons of all ages averaged 8.5 for men, and 4.2 for women. It was roughly twice that for the age group 55 to 64, and three times that for those between 75 and 84.

• Smoking-material fires of trash, grass, and brush were more frequent than those in residences, but caused fewer civilian deaths. However, such fires can destroy very large areas, and cause fire fighter injuries and deaths.

An ignition risk analysis for cigarette initiated upholstered furniture fires showed that the US incident rate from 1975 to 1982 was related to the annual cigarette consumption rate and the estimated average cigarette ignition resistance of the upholstered items in use.[14]

The efficacy of upholstered furniture standards is illustrated by the California fire experience. In 1988, ten years after the cigarette and small flame ignition standards were first enforced, upholstered furniture fires had declined by 50%.[15] Part of this can be ascribed to the increased use of smoke detectors and lower percentage of smokers; on the other hand, the California population increased considerably during that period. California fire statistics for 1980 to 1984 show that upholstered items were the first to ignite in 35% of the hotel/motel and nursing home fires.

Combined figures for the UK and the Netherlands showed similar trends.[16] Bedding and upholstered furniture accounted for approximately 10% of residential and 2% of public building fires. Smoking materials caused 32% of the residential fires (presumably mostly in upholstered items), electrical equipment 20%, and matches and lighters 10%. Figures for the UK alone show that upholstered furniture and bedding fires accounted for about 15% of the residential fires (total 63,000) but 50% of the deaths (total 710) and 30% of the injuries. About 30% of the deaths occurred in rooms other than that of the fire origin.

Canada experiences about 4,000 upholstery fires a year, causing 100 deaths, 310 injuries, and a $28 million loss.[17]

1.5.0 SUMMARY OF REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT

This is a nontechnical overview of the voluntary and regulatory activities regarding upholstered item flammability. As the most significant recent development, the European Union (EU) (formerly called European Community, EC) completed the program leading to the CBUF report.[7] It was designed to provide a scientific base for potential regulations to control post-ignition fires of upholstered items. At the time of this writing, however, no regulatory activity has ensued.

The technical details of tests and standards are given in Ch. 3. Recent reviews of US activities in this area can be found in Refs. 18–20. They cover the available tests, with emphasis on American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Damant has discussed the California standards, their effects, and changes made over the years on the basis of experience.[15][21]

Because cigarette-initiated fires are much more frequent than flame ignition caused fires, particularly in residences, prevention of the former was assigned priority in the US in the 1970s. Voluntary standards for cigarette ignition exist in the US for residential and institutional upholstered furniture.[22][23] A Federal Standard applies to mattresses.[24] The upholstered furniture standards have almost identical ASTM and NFPA counterparts.[25]–[28] During 1994–1997, the US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) developed a small-flame ignition test in response to a petition from the National Association of the State Fire Marshals. Congressional action raised the spectre that meeting any new flammability requirements would require use of fire retardants and the latter might present toxic hazards. Despite decades of safe and effective use of fire retardants worldwide, CPSC was forced to pause the study and to commission a toxicity research project instead. The results are expected to become available towards the end of 2000. The draft CPSC test method itself is discussed in Ch. 3.

California enforces its own regulations of cigarette and small flame resistance of fabrics and paddings, and of large flame resistance of institutional upholstered items.[29]–[31] Besides the long standing California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation (BHFTI) Technical Bulletins TB 116 and TB 117 covering cigarette and small flame ignition requirements for residential furniture components,[29] standards were developed for institutional occupancies. TB 133 applies to furniture,[30] and TB 129 to mattresses.[31] They have been adopted as standards by ASTM.[32]–[33] TB 133 has also been adopted in a number of additional states and localities, and is being actively promoted for use all over the US. The International Association of Fire Fighters, an organization with about 200, 000 members, undertook a political effort to get TB 133 adopted in all 50 states.[34] Going to the individual states seemed indicated because of the anti-regulatory environment at the US Federal level, but presents difficulties because each legislature may use somewhat different wording, causing confusion for the furniture manufacturers. General adoption of TB 133 also was supported by the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, BIFMA, and other industry organizations, and has made good progress.

TB 133 applies to behavior after exposure to a substantial ignition source, about 18 kW, one of its (several) pass/fail requirements is that the HRR not exceed 80 kW. This requirement was based on a comprehensive series of full-scale room and furniture calorimeter tests on upholstered furniture conducted at the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and BHFTI in which the original room temperature rise requirement was correlated with HRR.[35]–[36] At that peak in HRR, there is no possibility of flashover, and little possibility of the ignition of an adjoining or very close item. There are also prescribed pass/fail levels of smoke and CO.

The NFPA Life Safety Code has provisions for upholstered furniture.[37] It requires cigarette resistance of components according to NFPA 260 for residential occupancies,[25] and of furniture mock-ups according to NFPA 261 for public occupancies.[26] For mattresses, the Federal Test is prescribed.[24] Exceptions are made for rooms with sprinklers installed.

In addition, in the US, furniture in public occupancies is also frequently subject to state and local fire codes with widely differing requirements.[38] This variety of local codes can make compliance complicated for furniture manufacturers.

With respect to flame ignitability, as well as behavior after ignition under flaming conditions, an important development of recent years is the use of HRR for characterization of materials, including upholstered items. The leading instrument for this is the Cone Calorimeter, which also permits measurement of smoke and toxic pyrolysis products.[39]–[41] A book covering the state-of-the-art use of HRR appeared in 1992,[42] and an annotated bibliography on the Cone Calorimeter publications through 1991 has been published.[43] One of the advantages of these measurements is that the results are in engineering units which can be used in computer programs for calculations of the fire hazard presented by various occupancies.

The UK passed ignitability regulations in 1988 for all types of furniture and amended them in 1989.[44] An excellent guide to these regulations is Ref. 45, the testing is based on BS 5852.[46] A similar standard for mattresses is BS 6807.[47] Additional standards used for UK government procurement apply to various upholstered items.[48] In general, they are similar to those described in the UK Regulations but there are differences in specimen orientation, etc.

Various provisions of the UK regulations had effective dates varying from only a few months after promulgation in 1988 to March 1993. Nevertheless, they were apparently accepted without major objections.[49] The development of combustion modified (CM) polyurethane, containing melamine or exfoliated graphite, made the regulation for polyurethane foam cushions technologically practicable for selected cover fabrics, without the use of interliners. However, the short lead times for enforcement (for some parts less than a year), the additional burden on the furniture industry of labeling and record keeping, the vagueness of the original regulations, and the more severe requirements for polyurethane foam than for latex foam were criticized by the British Furniture Industry Research Association.

Brief histories of the circumstances leading to the British regulations and means to meet them are found in Refs. 50 and 51. Fire services all over the world are concerned about the rapidly developing fire in polyurethane foam containing furniture, compared to the older materials such as cellulosic battings and horse hair.[52] A survey of European fire brigades published in 1989 showed that 96% believed that fires became worse and produced more smoke and toxic gases than previously. Seventy seven percent ascribed this to the use of polyurethane foam, and 79% indicated that there was need for legislation to reduce the hazard. As discussed earlier, similar concerns were expressed by the US fire fighting community and led to its endorsement of California TB 133 for institutional furniture.

Various aspects of the UK Regulations are discussed in Refs. 53 and 54. The regulations define occupancies according to the level of hazard presented by upholstered furniture and mattresses, and assign ignition sources used in BS 5852 (upholstered furniture) and BS 6807 (mattresses) accordingly. Resistance to ignition by cigarettes and a small gas flame simulating a match is required for all occupancies. Resistance to larger ignition sources is specified for High Risk Facilities, such as jails, prisons, detention centers, nursing care facilities, retirement homes, health care facilities, public auditoriums, condominiums, etc. The UK Regulations and related documents contain guidelines for the contents of homes, offices, work places, hospitals, residential care premises, places of entertainment, hotels, and boarding houses.

A few years ago, a major effort was undertaken in Europe directed toward unification of flammability standards for the European Union (EU). Some of the preparatory activities were described in a series of papers presented at the Conference on Fire and Furnishing in Buildings and Transport, held in Luxembourg in November 1990[55] and subsequent meetings. The Commission for European Standardization (CEN) formed Technical Committee TC 207 in 1989. Its activities as of 1992 were described by the Convener of its working group WG 6, Fire Test Methods, R. P. Marchant of the UK Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA).[56] Meanwhile, the European Commission had announced a Draft Directive (subsequently withdrawn) relating to upholstered items, citing the following essential requirements:

1. Ignitability—three levels of ignition resistance: cigarette resistance for all three levels; match equivalent flame resistance for residential furniture; resistance to an ignition source equivalent to a double sheet of newsprint for general public assembly occupancies; and resistance to five or six newsprint sheets for high risk areas such as locked wards of hospitals and prisons.

2. Escape time in terms of smoke, toxicity, and heat released during the fire.

3. Provisions to avoid adverse effects on the environment by FR treatments.

4. Provisions for giving suitable information on the fire properties of furniture to the end user.

As a first step response, the present regulations, rules, and tests used by the EU members for residential, institutional, and transportation upholstered items were identified in 1990. The UK upholstered item fire regulations formed the basis for discussions in the organizations responding to CEN, ISO, and EU.[57]–[60] The ISO ignitability standard is patterned after BS 5862.[61]

A study of the requirements and a proposal for further work was undertaken by the European Group of Official Laboratories for Fire-testing (EGOLF) and related to UK and ISO activities.[58] The Working Group evaluated ignition sources larger than cigarettes and matches, such as paper bags containing newspapers, gas flames, and wood cribs. Tests for mattresses based on the same concepts were proposed. Similarly, tests for post-ignition behavior, reaction-to-fire tests, using the full-scale NORDTEST 032 Furniture Calorimeter[62] and the Cone Calorimeter,[41] were considered. An ambitious interlaboratory test evaluation, including six ignition sources (20 to 2500 kJ), six fabric/padding combinations, and 14 laboratories was planned in 1990.

Use of full-scale room tests (ISO 9705)[63] to verify the results from the furniture calorimeter and methods of hazard assessment with use of computer codes were proposed. Measurement of heat release, smoke, and toxic product release rates on bench-scale (for example, with the Cone Calorimeter) would have to be related to full-scale experiments, and furniture geometry effects established. Fire spread to adjacent articles would have to be established by ignitability measurements at various levels of irradiance. Among the other items under discussion were the need to establish levels of protection needed for various occupancies, ranging from residential (for which the BS 5852[46] and ISO 8191[61] cigarette and match simulation flame ignitability tests seemed acceptable), to prisons and mental institutions, where escape is difficult or impossible and where arson is a distinct possibility. Individual governments would establish the levels of protection needed for various occupancies; interstate traffic of furniture would not be hampered by this because items would be labeled according to their behavior in various tests.

The main research program, which actually materialized to increase the state of knowledge of fire testing upholstered items, was CBUF. The basic thinking leading up to the CBUF program is discussed in Refs. 7 and 64. The objective was the development of a new technology for assessment of the post-ignition burning behavior of upholstered furniture in support of the Second Essential Requirement included in the draft EU furniture directive. This requirement stated:

The atmosphere in the room in which the upholstered furniture or related article are on fire should despite the production of heat and smoke … remain for a reasonable period of time after ignition such that it does not endanger the lives or physical well being of exposed persons. This will be achieved by controlling the rates of heat release, and of smoke and toxic gas production. This would allow time for the escape by alert and able-bodied persons.

The CBUF research program was authorized by the European Commission and part-funded by it. The rest of the funding came from industry, governments, and laboratories within the Member States of EU. The consortium conducting the research consisted of three organizations in the UK, and one each in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. The technical coordinator was Björn Sundström of the Swedish National Testing and Research Institute in Borås. The major results of this research can be briefly summarized as follows:[65]

1. The HRR history of the full-scale furniture in the furniture calorimeter was identified as the principal measure of the hazard. From that, the height of the interface between the hot upper gas layer and the near ambient temperature lower layer, through which the room occupants would have to escape, could be calculated. The HRR combined with the yields of smoke and toxic gases could be used to predict the smoke obscuration and toxic gas concentrations in the room of fire origin and in the other rooms in the building.

2. A furniture fire model, a mattress fire model and a set of correlation formulas were developed to predict the HRR in the furniture calorimeter based on measurements on the furniture composites in the Cone Calorimeter. This would reduce the amount of full scale testing required.

3. A composite model was developed, as an option, to predict the HRR of furniture composites based on measurements on the individual components in the Cone Calorimeter. This would reduce the amount of bench scale testing required and make it practical to shift the responsibility for the testing from the furniture manufacturers to the material suppliers.

4. It was left to the regulator to specify the minimum time that must be allowed for escape from the room of fire origin and the minimum height of the hot gas interface during that period. In order to determine the acceptability of an upholstered furniture item, the actual escape time and minimum interface height can be predicted from its full scale HRR curve using existing room fire models.

The full-scale fire test methods for the various furniture items varying in material assemblies and configuration were the ISO room/corner test[63] and the furniture calorimeter.[62] The fabrics and the foam were tested both as composites and as separate components in the Cone Calorimeter.[41] Detailed testing procedures for the room fire test and for the furniture and Cone Calorimeters were written based on an extensive investigation of the effects of the various test parameters. The ignition source for the full-scale tests was a gas burner with a nominal 30 kW HRR applied for 120 seconds, to assure ignition of most items. Commercial solid core and innerspring mattresses, innersprings, two and three seat sofas, and a large variety of upholstered chairs, as well as upholstered chairs varying systematically in fabric and padding and configuration were included. There were 71 room tests, 154 furniture calorimeter tests, and Cone Calorimeter tests of 1098 composites, along with 172 individual fabrics and foams tested. A number of preliminary experiments established the ignitability of the various items, and the effects of increased room size, variations in room ventilation, reproducibility and repeatability, and test procedure details. The report is an important source for information for the development of furniture fire models and furniture design engineering, as well as for the 1995 state of the art upholstered furniture fire experiments. The essential findings are summarized in the appropriate chapters of this book.

Many countries currently have no encompassing upholstered item regulations but rely, to varying degrees, on local authorities and purchase specifications for the fire safety of upholstered items. Limited regulations apply to certain public occupancies in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The activities in the Nordic Countries, which proceed within the framework of EU, are described in Ref. 64.

The regulation of transportation seating will also be unified throughout the EU. For aircraft, most countries comply with the US Federal Administration (FAA) standard[66] and the aircraft producers often have additional standards. For ships, compliance with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules is universally accepted. There appear to be few regulations for automobile upholstery except in the US,[67] however, this standard provides very little protection. On the other hand, bus upholstery is regulated in some countries, using paper or radiant ignition sources, or with the BS 5852 in the UK. Details are given in Ch. 3.

2

Fundamentals

This chapter briefly summarizes some of the fire science fundamentals that need to be considered in dealing with the fire behavior of upholstered furniture and provides references to research that has been carried out in these areas. The topics covered include pyrolysis, combustion, smoldering, transition to flaming, flaming ignition, flame spread, HRR, propagating and non-propagating fires, inter-item spread, interaction with the enclosure, flashover, smoke and toxic gases.

For more detailed discussions of fire science fundamentals, the reader is referred to Drysdale’s book on Fire Dynamics[68] and the SFPE Handbook.[69] Because of the central role played by heat release rate, the book Heat Release in Fires[42] is also a useful reference. The report on the CBUF project deals with the application of many of these elements to a comprehensive research program on the fire behavior of upholstered furniture.[7]

2.1.0 PYROLYSIS AND COMBUSTION

Combustion of solid materials that exhibit charring can occur by smoldering, glowing, or flaming. They undergo thermal decomposition (pyrolysis) to produce volatiles and char at elevated temperatures. Here the term volatile , (kg s−1) during the thermal decomposition of a solid element having a uniform absolute temperature, T (K) is usually expressed by the Arrhenius equation,

(Eq. 2-1)

where m is the remaining mass of the element at any time during the decomposition, mf is the final mass of its char, A is an effective frequency factor, E is an effective activation energy and R is the gas constant (8.3 × 10−3 kJ mole−1 K−1). The exponent, n, is the order of the reaction that is usually taken to be unity, which means that the rate of volatilization is directly proportional to the amount of mass left that can be volatilized. The constants A, E, and n have physical significance for gas phase reactions. In the case of the thermal decomposition of solids, they are only empirical constants which have been found to provide a good correlation of the mass loss rate with (1) the absolute temperature of the specimen and (2) the mass remaining to be lost before it reaches its final char state. To use Eq. 2-1 for computing the mass loss rate, one has to obtain the kinetic constants. These can be obtained by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Such an approach is usually reserved for research studies, since for product testing it is normally much easier to measure the mass loss rate directly (see Sec. 2.6.0).

For cellulosic materials a rule of thumb is that a 10°C rise in temperature approximately doubles the rate of decomposition. If the volatiles form a combustible mixture with