Staff of the TSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics has proposed an original contactless method for testing the fire resistance of wooden structures and building materials. Various wood construction materials (oriented strand board, plywood, and chipboard) covered with flame retardants were taken for the experiments. The results will be used in the development of fire hazard test methods. The new methodology and related software were presented at an international seminar in Saint Petersburg.
In the experiments, the scientists directed a constant stream of heat from the radiator to the sample and, at the same time, fixed the moment of ignition - the appearance of a flame on the surface. For testing the method of infrared diagnostics (when studying the ignition characteristics), they took the flame retardants available on the market.
- We used different compositions for impregnating samples, - explains Pavel Martynov, of the Laboratory for Modeling and Forecasting Disasters of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. - Naturally, the ignition time on the treated sample increased, but different formulations had different effects on fire resistance.
The main goal of the experiments was to create a technique for working with an infrared camera to assess the fire hazard characteristics of various materials. Observations obtained at TSU may serve as additional recommendations for fire hazard test methods for both building materials and flame retardants.
The results of the experiments were presented at the 9th International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards in Saint Petersburg, which was attended by experts from 34 countries. The topics of the seminar included the dynamics of fire, detonation, hydrogen safety, flammability of materials, firefighting, investigation of fires and accidents, risk assessment, human behavior under fire conditions, and other aspects of uncontrolled burning during fires and explosions.
In addition, Pavel Martynov presented a poster report on the software developed at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, which will help to evaluate the spread of fire using infrared diagnostics.
- It is still not clear how burning fiery particles contribute to the spread of fire, and using our software, you can annotate each such particle in a video clip recorded with an infrared camera, said Pavel Martynov. - After the program is debugged, it will be possible to automatically process thermal imaging video obtained in real fires and receive information on the number, size, speeds, and temperatures of the particles. This will create the prerequisites for building a database of the characteristics of burning particles for fires of varying intensity.