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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1962-02-01
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Small-Scale Fire Tests
Harmathy, T. Z.; Blanchard, J. A. C.
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-DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH
No.
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
365
NOTE
'Ir
E
C
1HlN ][ CAlL
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FOR INTERNAL USE PREPARED BY T. Z. Harmathyanq;HECKED BY
J. A. C. Blanchard
APPROVED BY NBH
February 1962
PREPARED FOR Record Purposes
SUBJECT SMALL-SCALE FIRE TESTS
A few years ago the Fire Research Section of the Division of Building Research (National Research Council) built a small electric fire test furnace, which had been designed to receive specimens 30 in. by 30 in. and up to 10 in. in thickness. It was hoped that such a furnace would offer a convenient way of observing the behaviour of building materials at elevated temperatures and of studying certain phenomena contributing to the deterioration of assemblies of materials under s,tandard fire exposure.
During the past two years this small test furnace has proved to be a very useful tool in fire research. Evidence is now available that
several aspects of the fire endurance of building elements, such as the transfer of heat, the liability of certain materials to spall, the effect of moisture content on the point of failure, etc., can be successfully studied on small test specimens.
Because of the very significant saving offered by small-scale experimentation there is a growing interest by the industry for using the small-scale testing facilities of the Division of Building Research. The Fire Research laboratory is, of course, always ready to assist Canadian manufacturers in their development work, but before any application for small-scale tests can be accepted, the limitations of the use of the information obtainable from such tests should be clearly understood.
.""'. :t
2
-First of all. it should be emphasized that at present no
facilities are available to exert load or restraint on small test specimens. It is obvious. therefore. that it would be a wasted effort to use the
small fire ｴ･ｾｴ furnace for investigating the fire enduring quality of constructions that are likely to fail by collapse during standard fire exposure.
If. on the other hand. there are strong signs that the
construction will fail because 01 inadequate thermal resistance during a standard fire test, the fire endurance period yielded by the small-scale test will probably be a good indication of the actual performance of the construction under investigation. It should be borne in mind, however. that in no case can the results of small-scale fire tests be accepted as a basis for fire endurance classification.
There may be many other problems besides that of over-all performance of a construction, that are well su,ited for small-scale studies. There can be little doubt. therefore. that the small-scale fire endurance testing has an important part to play in the development of useful information on the performance of materials under fire
exposure.
