A review of fire growth and fully developed fires in railcars

A literature review was performed to assess the state of knowledge of the effects of railcar interior finish materials on fire growth and fully developed fires from railcars. An overview is provided on standards and requirements currently used to regulate interior finish materials. Following this review, an overview of experimental and computational research is provided on railcar interior finish flammability and its impact on fire growth. A survey of the research on fully developed fires and the potential heat release rates of railcars is then presented. This includes scaling laws, experimental research, and model development. Future research recommendations are then presented.