Title: Cone calorimeter evaluation of the flammability of composite materials
Abstract: A study was undertaken to evaluate the fire performance of composite materials using the cone calorimeter as the bench-scale method of test simulating the thermal irradiance from fires of various magnitudes.Five parameters were derived from the calorimetry measurements to characterize the ignitability and flammability of the composite materials.Three of the parameters are, to a large extent, empirical since radiative heat losses from the samples were unknown-.These parameters are: 1) minimum external radiant flux (MERF) required to produce pilot ignition in a predetermined exposure time; 2) thermal sensitivity index (TSI) which indicates the burning intensity dependence on external heat flux; and 3) The values were found to be essentially constant at external fluxes ranging from 35 to 75 kW/m 2 , with few exceptions 1.