Burning Characteristics of Wood-based Materials using Cone Calorimeter and Inclined Panel Tests

Research to discuss the fire performance of materials requires tools for measuring their burning characteristics and validated fire growth models to predict fire behavior of the materials under specific tire scenarios using the measured properties as input for the models. In this study, burning characteristics such as time to ignition, weight loss rate, flame spread, heat release rate, total heat evolved, and effective heat of combustion for four types of wood-based materials were evaluated using the cone calorimeter and inclined panel tests. Time to ignition was affected by not only surface condition and specific gravity of the tested materials but also the type and magnitude of heat source. Results of weight loss rate, measured by inclined panel tests, indicated that heat transfer from the contacted flame used as the heat source into the inner part of the specimen was inversely proportional to specific gravity of material. Flame spread was closely related with ignition time at the near part of burning zone. Under constant and severe external heat flux, there was little difference in weight loss rate and total heat evolved between four types of wood-based panels. More applied heat flux caused by longer ignition time induced a higher first peak value of heat release rate. Burning characteristics data measured in this study can be used effectively as input for fire growth models to predict the fire behavior of materials under specific fire scenarios.