SEDL / STP / STP1082-EB / STP23516S

Relationship Between Generation of CO and CO² and Toxicity of the Environments Created by Materials in Flaming and Nonflaming Fires and Effect of Fire Ventilation

Tewarson, A
Manager, Factory Mutual Research Corp., Norwood, MA

Pages: 11    Published: Jan 1990

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Abstract

In fires, combustion behavior of materials, generation rates, and concentrations of fire products depend on many factors, such as the chemical structures of materials (aliphatic to aromatic to highly halogenated), fire ventilation, airflow and mixing, shape, size and arrangement of the materials, heat flux received by the materials, etc. Thus, toxicity of the environment is expected to depend on these factors.

This paper examines the relationship between the combustion behavior of materials and the toxicity of the environment. In this analysis, only CO and CO² are used, using the toxicity relationship suggested by Levin et al. [3] on the synergism between CO and CO² and data measured in the Factory Mutual Research Corp. (FMRC) small-scale flammability apparatus.