The effectiveness and the failure mechanism of fire barriers in a residential upholstered furniture (RUF) were investigated by full-scale flaming tests on upholstered chair mock-ups. Six commercial fire barriers were tested in this study. Fire barriers were screened for the presence of elements that are typically used in fire retardants and the presence of commonly used fire retardants. For each fire barrier, triplicate flammability tests were run on chair mock-ups, where polyurethane foam and polyester fiber fill were used as the padding materials, and each chair component was fully wrapped with the fire barrier of choice and a polypropylene cover fabric. The ignition source was an 18 kW square propane burner, impinging on the top surface of the seat cushion for 80 seconds. Results showed all six fire barriers reduced the peak heat release rate (as much as ≈64%) and delayed its occurrence (up to ≈19 minutes) as compared to the control chair mock-ups. The heat release rate remained at a relatively low plateau level until liquid products (generated by either melting or pyrolysis of the padding material) percolated through the fire barrier at the bottom of the seat cushion and ignited, while the fire barrier was presumably intact. The flaming liquid products dripped and quickly formed a pool fire under the chair, and the peak heat release rate occurred shortly thereafter. Ultimately, the ignition of the percolating liquid products at the bottom of the seat cushion was identified as the mechanism triggering the failure of the fire barrier.

中文翻译：

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全尺寸椅子模型中防火屏障的性能及失效机理

通过对软垫椅子模型进行全面燃烧测试，研究了住宅软垫家具 (RUF) 中防火屏障的有效性和失效机制。在这项研究中测试了六种商业防火屏障。对防火屏障进行了筛选，以确定是否存在通常用于阻燃剂的元素以及是否存在常用的阻燃剂。对于每个防火屏障，在椅子模型上进行了三次可燃性测试，其中聚氨酯泡沫和聚酯纤维填充物用作填充材料，并且每个椅子组件都用选择的防火屏障和聚丙烯覆盖织物完全包裹。点火源是一个 18 千瓦的方形丙烷燃烧器，撞击座垫的顶面 80 秒。结果表明，与控制椅模型相比，所有六个防火屏障都降低了峰值热释放率（高达 ≈64%）并延迟了其发生（最多 ≈19 分钟）。热量释放率保持在相对较低的平台水平，直到液体产品（由填充材料的熔化或热解产生）渗透通过座垫底部的防火屏障并被点燃，而防火屏障可能完好无损。燃烧的液体产品滴落下来，迅速在椅子下方形成池火，随后不久出现放热峰值。最终，座垫底部渗出液体产品的着火被确定为触发防火屏障失效的机制。