Experimental investigation of a motorcycle burning scenario

Abstract

The statistical figures of Government showed, by the end of 2006, there were 13,579,885 motorcycles registered in Taiwan. Most of people in Taiwan are used to parking the motorcycles around buildings and the motorcycles are made of multifarious plastic materials (such as ABS, PP, PC, PU, PMMA, PA, etc.). Therefore, there were heavy casualties and property losses when motorcycle fires occurred. For research concerning motorcycles' combustion characteristics, the data is obtained via Cone Calorimeter, video recording, and other apparatuses. According to the experiment results, a full-scale motorcycle combustion, for which the fire growth model is α t2, the maximum heat release rate is about 1.106 MW, the fire decline model is a - b x ln (t + c), the average of flame height is 3.5 m, and the maximum temperature is 870.9°C.