Fire Tests on Wood Pallets. Test Report.
Fire Tests on Wood Pallets. Test Report.
(1744 K)
Sheppard, D. T.
Test Report; NC1838-97ND312904; 35 p. May 1998.
Sponsor:
Chep, USA
Keywords:
pallets; wood; pallet storage; fire tests; test methods;
sprinklers; temperature; heat flux; heat release rate
Abstract:
This report describes two series of tests conducted on
wood pallets. The first series evaluated the
effectiveness of sprinkler protection on stacks of idle
pallets. The second series evaluated the commodity
classification of two types of wood pallets with Class
II commodity. Two types of pallets were tested in this
test series. The first type was identified as a 2-way
hardwood oak pallets. The second type was identified as
4-way southern yellow pine pallets. The idle pallet
series consisted of six fire tests conducted with stacks
of wood pallets. The purpose of the tests was to
evaluate the effectiveness of sprinklers to control idle
pallet fires in accordance with NFPA 231 1995 edition
Section 4 Table 4-4.1.2. The idle pallet tests
consisted of placing an array of wood pallet stacks
below a 30 ft. ceiling equipped with a sprinkler system.
The pallets were ignited in the center of the array and
the effectiveness of the sprinkler system was observed.
Measurements during the tests included: (i) number of
operated sprinklers, (ii) steel beam temperatures above
the fire, and (iii) radiant heat fluxes. The flame
spread through the pallet array was also recorded. Two
storage arrangements were used in this investigation as
shown in Figure 1. One test was conducted with a 2.2
array. Five tests were conducted with a 2.3 array. The
2.2 array was used only once because the array was not
large enough to evaluate flame spread.
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