doi:10.3850/978-981-08-7724-8_11-08

ABSTRACT

Fire retarded acrylic curtains are a significant fire load in many domestic and hotel fires and give rise to the release of the toxic gas HCN in addition to other irritant and acidic gases. This work studies the toxic gases from acrylic curtain fires in a 1.6 m³ compartment fire with controlled ventilation at 5–37 air changes per hour (ACH). The fires were initiated by a small 10g pool fire of ethanol beneath the hanging curtains. The fire spread was rapid and peak mean compartment temperatures were 350–500°C depending on the ventilation. Peak HRR increased from 6 to 50 kW as the ventilation increased. All the fires generated rich equivalence ratios of between 1.5 and 2.5 depending on the ACH. Peak CO yields were 0.15 with 0.026 for HCN, 0.045 for formaldehyde and 0.01 for acrolein. The LC50 total toxicity peak was 45, indicating extremely toxic conditions for air starved acrylic curtain fires.

Keywords: Fire toxicity, Acrylic curtains, HCN, Compartment fires.

© 2011 CPD Unit, University of Leeds