Development Of A Demountable Fire Test Corridor For Assessment Of Floor Coverings

Presently in Australia there exists an industry-expressed need for a large-scale fire test method to be developed for floor coverings, in order that the validity of AS 1530 Part 3 [I], the method currently specified for control of floor coverings, can be assessed and, if necessw, a replacement test method can be validated. This paper describes the development of a fire test room and 10 m demountable corridor facility to meet this need. It discusses experiments in which heat release rate and flame spread distance were measured as a function of time for wool, nylon and polypropylene carpets burnt in the corridor.