Forty years of material flammability: An appraisal of its role, its experimental determination and its modelling

Publication date: March 2018
Source:Fire Safety Journal, Volume 96
Author(s): Nicolas Bal
Material flammability is a fundamental aspect of fire as it corresponds to the root of a fire. Its characterisation through the identification of “fire properties” is essential. The concept of material flammability has evolved in the past forty years and its experimental and numerical development has followed the evolution of its role in the Fire Safety Engineering strategy. Two main approaches coexist: ranking-based and comprehensive. While the ranking-based approach is still mainly used in a prescriptive strategy, comprehensive approaches, more fundamental, expand with the growing use of the Performance-Based strategy.There are weaknesses associated with both approaches. The origin of these weaknesses can be understood by investigating the difficulties associated with the measurement and the modelling of material flammability.It ends up that despite the significant improvement in the past forty years, material flammability still represent a weak point in the global assessment of the fire safety level. Indeed, while the Heat Release Rate (HRR) is considered as the most important parameter in Fire Safety Engineering studies, it is also probably the “fire property” with the highest uncertainty.However, material flammability should not and cannot prevent innovation and building construction. This implies that the fire safety level should be thought of as a societal risk.



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