Thermal Hazard and Smoke Toxicity Assessment of Building Polymers Incorporating TGA and FTIR—Integrated Cone Calorimeter Arrangement

Preety Moni Doley, Anthony Chun Yin Yuen, Imrana Kabir, Luzhe Liu, Cheng Wang, Timothy Bo Yuan Chen, Guan Heng Yeoh

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Building polymers are highly flammable and produce a vast amount of toxic chemical compounds in the event of a fire which can lead to potential incapacitation and death. To gain an in-depth understanding of this issue, smoke toxicity and thermal characteristics of seven commonly used building polymers were analysed through a systematic fire performance evaluation system using a Thermogravimetric Analyzer and a Cone Calorimeter coupled with an FTIR arrangement. Four Fractional Effective Dose (FED) expressions were compared to assess the smoke toxicity of the fire effluents based on different assumptions. It was found that FEDN2, calculated using Purser’s equation, reported the highest values of FED with the following order of potential smoke toxicity at 50 kW/m2 radiative heat flux: LDPU > HDPU > PE > HDEPS > XPS > EVA > LDEPS. Furthermore, fire performance evaluation of the polymers was carried out by considering three key fire risk parameters, i.e., flashover propensity, total heat released, and toxic hazard. At 50 kW/m2 radiative heat flux, HDPU exhibited 11.7 times flashover propensity compared to the least flammable polymer (HDEPS), EVA exhibited 5 times total heat release compared to the polymer with the lowest total heat release (LDEPS) and, LDPU exhibited 6.7 potential times toxic hazard compared to the least toxic polymer (EVA).

Original languageEnglish
Article number139
JournalFire
Volume5
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Sept 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • cone calorimeter
  • FED
  • fire behaviour
  • FTIR
  • smoke toxicity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Forestry
  • Building and Construction
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Safety Research
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

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