THE INFLUENCE OF ENCLOSURE ON BURNING CHARACTERISTICS OF OSB FURNISHINGS

Abstract

This paper presents a series of full-scale tests conducted with office furniture made from OSB boards. Ignition source (30 kW gas burner) position and enclosure effects, free burn vs. ISO 9705 room, were evaluated from the perspective of instantaneous (HRR) and total heat (THR) released by the fuel packages. It was found that both of the evaluated factors have impact primarily on HRR – the peak ranging from 874 kW to 1 154 kW was delayed by approx. 50 to 60 s in the free-burn experiments; the THR remained relatively consistent at approx. 875 ± 30 MJ, meaning that in the observed period very similar amounts of fuel were burned. The thermal feedback within the enclosure seemed to be partially counteracted by the lack of oxygen, resulting in slightly higher HRR in free-burn test following the first peak. The findings of the research are applicable to fire hazard prediction by fire modelling.