Assessing flame spread over combustible materials with smaller-scale tests

Consequent to several big building fires, there are more concerns on fire safety provisions. To have adequate protection against accidental fire, new assessing strategies on flame spread over construction and lining materials, especially those timber chipboards and plastic materials commonly used, should be developed. Full-scale burning tests have been identified for such purpose. However, many resources and relatively long testing time are required. These tests might not be suitable for product development, quality control, and more importantly, selection of appropriate materials. Smaller-scale tests are proposed and two candidates are the Single Burning Item test and the Reduced-scale Model Box test. In this article, these two tests will be reviewed for use in assessing flame spread over surface, lining, and partitions. They are worthwhile to be considered by cities with densely populated urban environment like Hong Kong, especially in implementing performance-based fire codes.