Examination of the smoldering combustion behaviour of wood fiber insulation materials

The relatively unknown smoldering combustion behaviour of wood fiber insulation materials has been investigated in a research project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Germany. A new experimental method and corresponding testing apparatus have been developed and are proposed for the examination of the smoldering combustion. In this context, a simplified mathematical algorithm for the analysis of the measured data of the test procedure has been applied to quantify the smoldering combustion. The hereby introduced smoldering acceleration, which is a primary output of the proposed testing procedure, can potentially be perceived as a characterizing parameter for the smoldering combustion under consideration of the methodical specifications. Furthermore, the investigation included the determination of the influence of defined material properties and boundary conditions on the smoldering combustion behaviour of wood fiber insulation materials. Results indicate that the density, fiber size distribution and moisture content as well as the flow stream velocity considerably influence the smoldering behaviour.