Fire Technology

, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp 679–698 | Cite as

Fire Behaviour of Tropical and European Wood and Fire Resistance of Fire Doors Made of this Wood

Article
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Abstract

In the building industry, there is currently a significant lack of information on fire resistance properties of room separation elements made of tropical wood species. The objective of the present study is to fill this gap by investigating the fire behaviour of tropical wood species and subsequently assessing the fire resistance of elements made of this material. In particular, the prime target was to find easy to measure parameters which correlate with both the charring rate and the deflection, the latter caused by fire induced rapid dehumidification. Further, the so found parameters have been investigated for suitability as reliable predictors for fire resistance of fire doors when tropical wood is used as substitute for European native wood. A series of measurements were carried out for tropical and European wood species. Beam deflection and charring rate as well as the fire resistance of doors were measured in standard fire (ISO 834-1). In addition, the oxygen permeability index (OPI) of wood, which appears to have a strong correlation with the charring rate, was measured. It is shown that in consideration of fire resistance both the charring rate and the deflection have to be addressed when tropical wood is used as substitute for European native wood. Finally, it is clearly confirmed that a single parameter such as wood density is not reliable to assess the substitution of an alternative wood species for a species on which fire resistance test results are available.

Keywords

Tropical wood species Charring rate Deflection Fire resistance Fire door Substitution of wood 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to K. Schmidt (Intercooperation-Swiss Foundation for Development and International Cooperation), B. Müller (passed away in 2007) (Müller Consulting) and N. Knecht (Theodor Nagel GmbH) for their huge engagement to organise all tropical wood species and to bring the wood safely from South America to Switzerland; A. Demont, M. Meier and R. Ganz (members of the Empa fire laboratory staff) for assistance in preparing and executing the fire tests; P. Janutin (RWD Schlatter AG) for supervising the manufacturing of all fire doors of high quality and consistency; R. Herzig (former director of VST) for initiating and supporting the project. This study has been funded by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Swiss Association of Door Manufacturers VST and Empa.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Laboratory for Building Science and TechnologyDuebendorfSwitzerland
  2. 2.Die SchreinerZeitungZurichSwitzerland

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