Experimental Study on the Burning Behavior of Pool Fires in Rooms with Different Wall Linings

An experimental test series, comprising 10 experiments with varying pool sizes, lining materials and amounts of liquid burning, was conducted under free burn and room burn conditions. The thermal feedback from the enclosure (ISO 9705 Room Corner Test facility) enhanced the burning rate of the pools and resulted in a thermal runaway in some of the runs.

The onset of the thermal runaway, which can be associated with flashover, varied with all the input parameters. The lining with the lowest thermal inertia lead to the fastest increase in the heat release rate (HRR) in the enclosure and caused flashover in the shortest time. Given the profound difference between the enclosure tests and the free burn tests and also between enclosure tests with different linings, it is recommended to show great caution if free burn tests are to be used in design fire scenarios.