Impact of Apartment Tightness on Temperature Variability during a Fire

Jerzy Gałaj and Damian Saleta
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Jerzy Gałaj: Institute of Safety Engineering, The Main School of Fire Service, 01-629 Warsaw, Poland
Damian Saleta: Teaching Department, The Central School of State Fire Service, 42-200 Częstochowa, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-20

Abstract: Along with the thermal modernization process of old residential buildings, there has been a significant increase in the air tightness of apartments, which may contribute to the deterioration of the safety of users and rescue teams in a fire. The main goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the air tightness of an apartment on fire growth and temperature variability. In the work, an experimental method was applied. Two full-scale fire tests were carried out, one in a sealed apartment and the other in unsealed one. The temperature was measured by thirty-two thermocouples. Two thermal imaging and video cameras were also used to evaluate a temperature field as well as flame and smoke height. Based on the analysis, conclusions have been formulated. It is noteworthy that the highest temperatures and significant increase in pressure were obtained in a sealed apartment, but dangerous and critical conditions regarding firefighters’ safety were achieved faster and persisted much longer in an unsealed one.

Keywords: real-scale fire tests; air tightness of residential apartment; fire environment; temperature variability during a fire; fire in apartment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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