Smoke-producing characteristics of materials

The various methods available for the determination of the smoke-producing characteristics of materials have been critically reviewed. These characteristics depend on both the material and the conditions under which smoke is produced. Two important factors are oxygen concentration and temperature. Most of the existing methods represent combustion under a limited set of environmental conditions that exist at actual fires. As a result the validity of the determination is limited to the specific conditions defined by the test; different tests may produce conflicting results. The rate of smoke generation depends on two factors, one is rate of combustion, the other, smoke generation coefficient or the amount of smoke produced from a unit weight of material. These two factors have different characteristics. A method to determine the smoke generation coefficient alone is needed in order to obtain data for a better understanding of smoke production. A method to meet this need has been developed and the smoke generation coefficient of various polymeric materials has been determined under various conditions of temperature and oxygen concentration in the atmosphere.Les diff\ue9rentes m\ue9thodes de d\ue9termination des caract\ue9ristiques fumig\ue8nes des mat\ue9riaux sont pass\ue9es en revue et comment\ue9es. Ces caract\ue9ristiques sont fonction tant du mat\ue9riau que des conditions de fumigation. La concentration d'oxyg\ue8ne et la temp\ue9rature sont deux facteurs importants. La plupart des m\ue9thodes existantes repr\ue9sentent la combustion au moyen d'un ensemble limit\ue9 de conditions observ\ue9es dans des incendies actuels. Par cons\ue9quent, la validit\ue9 de la d\ue9termination se limite aux conditions pr\ue9cises d\ue9finies dans l'essai; diff\ue9rents essais peuvent donner des r\ue9sultats contradictoires. La vitesse de fumigation est fonction de deux facteurs: la vitesse de combustion et le coefficient de fumigation, c'est-\ue0-dire le volume de fum\ue9e que produit un poids unitaire du mat\ue9riau. Ces deux facteurs ont des caract\ue9ristiques diff\ue9rentes. Une m\ue9thode servant \ue0 d\ue9terminer uniquement le coefficient de fumigation est n\ue9cessaire si l'on veut mieux comprendre la production de fum\ue9e. On a mis au point une telle m\ue9thode et l'on a d\ue9termin\ue9 le coefficient de fumigation de diff\ue9rents mat\ue9riaux polym\ue8res pour diff\ue9rentes temp\ue9ratures et concentrations d'oxyg\ue8ne dans l'atmosph\ue8re.Aussi disponible en fran\ue7ais: Caract\ue9ristiques fumig\ue9 nes des mat\ue9riauxPeer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye