Investigation of the influence of impregnation on the pine timber combustion using flow through tests

Abstract

Millions of people have lost their lives during fire in the recent decades, the majority died from inhalation of toxic fire effluents. Toxic fire effluents cause death in fire, as any incapacitation is likely to impede escape, and increase the chance of becoming trapped. Better understanding of this problem will contribute to the reduction in the number of such deaths in the future. This paper analyses emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and ammonia (NH3) during the combustion of non-impregnated and impregnated pine timber with fire retardants in research equipment for toxic combustion products emitted from solid materials after the impact of the heat source (e.g. flow through test). The toxicity of pine timber specimens was investigated at two powers of external heat source of 8 kW/m2 and 10 kW/m2.