Study on correlations between the flammability and dynamic smoke properties of four decorative materials

The objective of this work is to quantitatively study the combustion characteristics and dynamic smoke properties by using cone calorimeter at different external heat flux. The relationship between heat release rate (HRR) and smoke production rate (SPR) of four decorative materials is investigated. The results show that the external heat flux levels and material compositions significant influence the HRR and SPR, indicating noncombustible materials of flame retarded chipboard (FRCB) and gypsum board (GPB) own the lower HRR and SPR compared to combustible materials of medium density fiberboard (MDFB) and melamine faced chipboard (MFCB). It is suggested that the peak SPR is linearly related to peak HRR for four decorative materials which the correlation coefficients are all above 0.94. When the decorative material is noncombustible, a negative linear relationship exists between peak SPR and peak HRR for GPB and FRCB. However, a positive linear relationship appears to combustible materials for FRCB and MDFB. This correlation demonstrates two different tendencies between SPR and HRR for noncombustible and combustible materials, contributing to understand the fire risk of decorative materials. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.