Towards fire safe and flame-retardant-free upholstered furniture

Abstract

Upholstered furniture persists as the leading item in deadly US home fires. New state regulations that restrict the use of flame retardants have been introduced across the nation, and the development of flaming tests for upholstered furniture ( National Fire Protection Agency 266) has been halted. In this work, the ability of an open-flame barrier fabric to suppress fire growth initiated from an upholstered sofa in a fully furnished living room-like compartment is demonstrated. The open-flame barrier was specifically developed for this application based on ASTM E 3367 test protocol. The barrier did not contain flame retardants and was made of intrinsically fire-resistant fibers and a para-aramid scrim. No other component of the sofa contained flame retardants. Experiments were conducted under a 10 MW exhaust hood equipped with an oxygen consumption calorimetry system that provides real-time heat release rate measurements. The room was instrumented with various temperature, heat flux, and gas analyzing sensors. Gas analysis of species, such as oxygen, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide, was carried out on gas samples extracted from the room to determine tenability and the exhaust duct of the hood to estimate species yields. The experiment with full-barrier coverage on the sofa showed no flashover and reduced the total heat release by approximately 44%, compared to the no-barrier coverage experiment. Based on the fractional effective dose, tenability time in the room increased from about 4 min for the no-barrier to 19 min for the partial-barrier and 25 min for the full-barrier. Overall, the application of the barrier fabric extended the tenability and delayed or suppressed flashover, giving more time in any life threatening fire scenario hence remarkably increasing egress time and survival rate without potential health or environmental hazards associated with the use of flame retardants.