Effects of retainer frame,irradiance level and specimen thickness on cone calorimeter test results

The effects of retainer frame use, irradiance level and specimen thickness were studied as the second phase work of a round robin project on the cone calorimeter. The project was conducted in support of various U.S. building code groups, developing a system to determine the degrees of combustibility of building materials. The results of the second phase and a comparison with the corresponding round robin results conducted at 75 kW/m² according to the Board for the Coordination of the Model Codes (BCMC) protocol, are presented here. For most of the materials, no significant differences in parameters measured in the cone calorimeter were found when the retainer frame was not used, versus when the retainer frame was used. The irradiance of 50 kW/m² compared with 75 kW/m² produced significantly longer ignition times (with one exception) and lower heat‐release‐related variables as expected. The exception was gypsum board, for which heat release related values were usually higher at 50 kW/m² than at 75 kW/m². The specimen thickness effect could not be studied adequately due to the small number of tests conducted. A significant thickness effect was shown for the heat‐release‐related variables but not for time to ignition. The effect, however, was opposite for polyurethane foam in comparison with cellulosic materials. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.