An Experimental Study on the Burning Behavior of Fabric used Indoor

Abstract Fabrics used indoor has a major impact on the development and spread of indoor fires and fire hazards because of its easy ignition, fast burning speed and the rapid spread rate. In this paper, the burning behavior of five kinds of fabrics used indoor such as cotton woven, jeans, woollen sweater, linen rope and sponge, were studied by means of the cone calorimeter. The ignition time, the heat release rate, the mass loss rate, the yield of CO and the smoke production rate of the five kinds of fabrics used indoor were analyzed and compared at different external heat flux conditions with the specific experimental data and image. Our results indicated that: with the increase of the heat flux, five kinds of fabrics were more and more to be ignited; in higher heat flux condition, average heat release rate and the peak mass loss rate were higher; In lower heat flux condition, due to the incomplete combustion, smoke production rate and the yield of CO were higher; and the effect of the density of the structure and moisture content to burning behavior of fabrics can’t be ignored. Fire risk order of five kinds of fabrics is: woollen fabrics> sponge fabrics> cotton fabrics> linen fabrics.