We model the thermal degradation and combustion of wood-based panel materials

News, 18/06/2020

The University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings of CTU participates in the development of a mathematical model that is applied in the field of fire safety of buildings and the detection of fire causes as an alternative or extension of physical fire tests.

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The project has been running since July 2019 and its goal is to obtain verified input data to the thermal degradation and combustion model for application in fire CFD solvers. It focuses on a group of wood-based board materials (OSB, plywood, fiberboard and chipboard), which surround us in all types of buildings and significantly contribute to the origin and development of fire. Does Laboratoř kompozitních konstrukcí ČVUT UCEEB collaborate on research?!? CTU UCEEB with the Technical Institute of Fire Protection and the University of Chemistry and Technology.

The experimental part is comprehensive in its scope: we monitor materials from microscopic and small scales, in which their elemental composition and thermal technical characteristics are determined at normal and elevated temperatures, to real tests in a furniture calorimeter. Large-scale tests will serve for optimization and validation of the values obtained in the calculation part.

The methodology to be created at the end of the project will explain how to describe the wooden board material in the model so that the results of the thermal decomposition modeling correspond as closely as possible to reality. Although the strength of the project lies mainly in the comprehensive scope, multiple optimization of material characteristics and validation by fire tests on several scales, even partial outputs have their weight. For the needs of less detailed CFD analyses, inputs verified from large-scale tests (rate of heat release, rate of weight loss or composition of the combustion products of large furniture assemblies) which are carried out at the Czech Technical University UCEEB are in demand worldwide.

Project Modelování tepelné degradace a hoření deskových materiálů na bázi dřeva was supported as part of the third public competition in research, experimental development and innovation of the Security Research Program of the Czech Republic in the years 2015 to 2022 of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.