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SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering

Chapter 2: Calorimetry

Overview

Marc Janssens

Dr. Marc Janssens is associate professor in the Fire Safety Engineering Technology program at the Department of Engineering Technology of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research has focused on computer fire modeling, fire hazard and risk assessment, fire test standards development, and the experimental and theoretical evaluation of material flammability with emphasis on heat release calorimetry.

Introduction

Heat release rate is the primary variable that determines the contribution to compartment fire hazard from materials. This was clearly demonstrated by Babrauskas and Peacock in a recent sensitivity study using the NIST fire hazard assessment software Hazard I. [1] However, the importance of heat release rate in fire hazard assessment was first recognized three decades ago by Smith at Ohio State University. [2] Smith and co-workers developed one of the first bench-scale heat release rate test methods. [3] They also proposed various procedures to assess compartment fire hazard on the basis of the bench-scale data, ranging from simple calculation methods [4] to a complex computer model. [5] This work was initiated at a time when the most accurate measuring techniques for heat release rate were not available, and when computer fire modeling was still in its infancy. Moreover, Smith advocated a practical approach based on engineering judgment and intuition rather than detailed science. Hence, his test and fire hazard assessment methods were far from perfect and received major criticism. [6] , [7] Nevertheless, Smith...

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