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Thermal Analysis and Cone Calorimeter Study of Engineered Wood with an Emphasis on Fire Modelling

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Abstract

Engineered wood products (EWPs) are a group of materials having a very similar chemical composition but having different and non-uniform thermo-physical properties throughout their thickness. Such materials present a significant challenge from the pyrolysis modelling point of view. The main focus of the paper is to study and compare the differences between six EWPs—oriented strand board (OSB), plywood, particle board (PB), low-density (LDF), medium-density (MDF) and high-density (HDF) fibreboard—in terms of their pyrolysis and burning behaviour. Vertical density profiles (VDPs), thermal degradation behaviour, and burning behaviour were studied and compared. There is a considerable need for a consistent and systematic approach in estimating pyrolysis model complexity and model input parameters. A systematic method to determine the minimum level of the EWPs decomposition model complexity to reproduce the thermal degradation behaviour as measured using thermogravimetric analysis and using the set of parallel reactions was applied. EWPs were found to have similar thermal decomposition onset and range. Maximal decomposition rates were within 25%. OSB, PB, LDF and HDF decomposition can be modelled using three-step parallel reactions scheme, MDF using four parallel reactions. A set of parallel reactions cannot describe the thermal degradation behaviour of plywood. Cone calorimeter tests at heat flux levels of 20 kW/m2, 50 kW/m2 and \(80\, \hbox {kW}/\hbox {m}^{2}\) revealed that influence of the different thermo-physical properties on time to ignition and time to peak heat release rate (HRR) is not significant except LDF and HDF due to their very different density. Peak HRR varies between EWPs, which is attributed primarily to charring and different thermo-physical properties of the EWPs char. EWPs gas phase combustion parameters for the fire models were derived.

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Abbreviations

A :

Pre-exponential factor (1/s)

e :

Euler number (2.71828)

E :

Activation energy (J/mol)

\(\varDelta H_{c}\) :

Effective heat of combustion (MJ/kg)

k :

The number of points in data set (–)

L :

Thickness (mm)

m :

Mass (mg)

n :

Reaction order (–)

N :

Total number of reactions (–)

p :

Number of complexes (–)

r :

Reaction rate (1/s)

R :

Universal gas constant (8.314 J/mol/K)

t :

Time (s)

T :

Temperature (K)

\(\varDelta T\) :

Pyrolysis range (K)

y :

Mass fraction (–)

\(\alpha\) :

Conversion (–)

\(\beta\) :

Heating rate (K/s)

\(\xi\) :

Mass loss change (1/s)

\(\rho\) :

Density (\(\hbox {kg}/\hbox {m}^3\))

\(\nu\) :

Stoichiometric coefficient (–)

exp :

Experiment

j :

Reaction

p :

Peak

R :

Residue

X :

Component

0:

Initial state

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimetry

DTG:

Derivative thermogravimetric

DDTG:

Second derivative thermogravimetric

EWP:

Engineered wood product

FDS:

Fire dynamics simulator

FV:

Fitness value

HDF:

High-density fibreboard

HRR:

Heat release rate

LDF:

Low-density fibreboard

MDF:

Medium-density fibreboard

MLR:

Mass loss rate

ODE:

Ordinary differential equation

OSB:

Oriented strand board

PB:

Particle board

PTFE:

Polytetrafluoroethylene

RSD:

Relative standard deviation

SCE:

Shuffled complex evolution

STA:

Simultaneous thermal analysis

TGA:

Thermogravimetric analysis

VDP:

Vertical density profile

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Specific University Research (MSMT No 21-SVV/2018) fund of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic. The authors would like to acknowledge financial support by the Czech Science Foundation (project GACR no. 19-22435S).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Technická 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Dejvice, Czech Republic

    Jiří Ira, Vojtěch Šálek, Milan Jahoda & Václav Vystrčil

  2. Technical Institute of Fire Protection in Prague, Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic, Písková 42, 143 00, Praha 4, Modřany, Czech Republic

    Lucie Hasalová & Václav Vystrčil

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  1. Jiří Ira
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Correspondence to Jiří Ira.

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Ira, J., Hasalová, L., Šálek, V. et al. Thermal Analysis and Cone Calorimeter Study of Engineered Wood with an Emphasis on Fire Modelling. Fire Technol 56, 1099–1132 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-019-00922-9

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