Laboratory fire experiments with a 1/3 train carriage mockup

• A total of six fire tests were conducted in a mock-up of a subway carriage that is about 1/3 of a full wagon length. They were carried out under a large scale calorimeter in a laboratory environment. The aim of the tests was to investigate the initial fire growth in a corner scenario using different types of ignition sources that could lead to a flashover situation. The ignition sources used were either a wood crib placed on a corner seat or one liter of petrol poured on the corner seat and the neighboring floor together with a backpack. The amount of luggage and wood cribs in the neighborhood of the ignition source was continuously increased in order to identify the limits for flashover in the test-setup. The tests showed that the combustible boards on parts of the walls had a significant effect on the fire spread. In the cases where the initial fire did not exceed a range of 400 – 600 kW no flashover was observed. If the initial fire grew up to 700 – 900 kW a flashover was observed. The maximum heat release rate during a short flashover period for this test set-up was about 3.5 MW. The time to reach flashover was highly dependent on the ignition type, wood cribs or backpack and petrol.

Nyckelord

metro

fire spread

luggage

commuter train wagon

Energy- and Environmental Engineering

energi- och miljöteknik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)