Effect of ventilation condition on heat release rate of typical thermoplastics in enclosure fire

The object of this work was to investigate the effect of ventilation condition on heat release rate of typical thermoplastics in enclosure fire. Typical thermoplastics were chosen to test in an ISO 9705 fire test room with an opening. The dimension of the opening was varied in both horizontal and vertical directions to obtain different ventilation conditions. Heat release rate was measured. Experimental results indicated that the generated pool fire played an important role during combustion process. The values of fire growth rate for different fire tests were almost the same, but the peak heat release rate was affected obviously by ventilation condition. Not only ventilation factor but also vertical location of opening should be considered when analyzing the effect of ventilation condition. A prediction model of peak heat release rate was developed based on fire plume theory. The comparative results with different ventilation conditions showed that the model could predict the variation trend of peak heat release rate well. © 2011, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.