An investigation on compartment fires with plywood cribs

An experimental investigation has been carried out for the burning of plywood cribs in a compartment under different ventilation conditions and two different crib patterns. A total of four experiments were conducted. Of them, three experiments were performed: the burning of regular crib pattern for 0%, 10%, and 100% compartment door opening. The fourth experiment was conducted for the staggered crib pattern with 100% door opening. Several measurements were made during experiments that include the flame temperature, ceiling temperature, total heat flux, outgoing gas temperatures, and heat release rate to investigate the burning characteristics and compartment environment. The rate of increase of heat release rate during growth period for staggered pattern crib was 11.5 kW/min, whereas for regular pattern crib, it was 8 kW/min. However, the peak heat release rate was only 15 kW higher as compared with that of the regular pattern crib. Increasing the ventilation to 10% and 100% has resulted in increase in the heat release rate by 61.6% and 77.4%, respectively. The compartment gas temperature and the total heat flux were highest for 10% door opening, whereas no significant changes were observed in flame temperatures with different ventilation conditions as well as crib pattern. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.