Full-scale Experimental Study of Fire Spread Behavior of Cars

Two full-scale experiments were carried out to study the burning behavior of car fire. Experiment was designed to simulate a car catching fire alone on the road. Experiment Ⅱ was designed to simulate car fire in the parking lot. The ignition locations in two experiments were all set in engine compartment. Thermocouples and a number of cameras were installed to obtain the temperature development and burning process. The results show that flames shot out from the engine compartment and spread to the hood, then spread to rear part of car after ignition. The maximum temperature can be between 800~950 ℃ in engine compartment, and maximum temperature can be between 800~1000 ℃ in driver's cab. In experiment II, the tire of adjacent car which was 0.8 m away from the burning car was easy to be ignited. In cars, the fire spread rate was slow in engine compartment but fast in driver's cab. Out of cars, the paint layers have a great effect, which made the flames spread fast on the external surface of cars. And the spread speed at the roof was faster than sides of car body. During the burning process, the melting and dropping phenomenon was obvious.