Experimental Study on the Fire Property of Pure Polymers and Polymer Mixture Pellets

Abstract

The present study conducted a series of fire tests using a cone calorimeter to understand the effects of pure polymers and polymer mixtures on fire properties. An initial fuel mass of 50 g in a 10-cm-diameter pan was placed on the load cell. Polystyrene, polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate, polystyrene-polyethylene mixture, and polystyrene-polymethylmethacrylate mixture was used as fuel. The fuel ignited using a pilot burner was allowed to burn freely. The fire properties of polymer mixtures, such as the mass loss rate, the effective heat of combustion, the CO yield rate, and the soot yield rate, did not depend on the mixture composition or fuel types, suggesting it is difficult to apply the statistically representative values of fire properties of the mixture. Therefore, quantitative measurements based on experiments and their database are necessary for reasonable fire analysis.